CONCRETE

ENGINEERING AND
TECHNOLOGY

Prof. Sudhir Misra

Civil Engineering
IIT Kanpur
 INDEX
S. Page
No Topic No.
1 Introduction and course overview 1
2 Constituents of concrete (Part 1 of 2) 38
3 Constituents of concrete (Part 2 of 2) 77
4 Admixtures in concrete – mineral and chemical 115
5 Hydration of cement 150
6 Basic properties of concrete 195
7 Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 1 of 3) 231
8 Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 2 of 3) 257
9 Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 3 of 3) 291
10 Pores and porosity in concrete 321
11 Porosimetry – measuring pores in concrete 351
12 Principles of quality control in concrete construction 380
Quality control and acceptance criteria for concrete based on compressive
13 Strength 409
14 Fibre reinforced concrete 439
15 High strength concrete 484
16 Mass concrete (Part 1 of 2) 513
17 Mass concrete (Part 2 of 2) 553
18 Concreting in cold weather 596
19 Concreting in hot weather 631
20 Roller compacted concrete 668
21 Self-compacting concrete 701
22 Testing self-compacting concrete 730
23 Shotcrete and underwater concrete 761
24 Alkali – aggregate reaction (Part 1 of 2) 791
25 Alkali – aggregate reaction (Part 2 of 2) 822
26 Reinforcement corrosion in concrete 845
27 Chloride penetration in concrete 878
28 Using epoxy-coated bars in concrete structures 912
29 Using FRP as reinforcement in concrete structures (Part 1 of 2) 942
30 Using FRP as reinforcement in concrete structures (Part 2 of 2) 968
31 Grouting and importance of formwork in concrete construction 1011
32 Carbonation and freezing & thawing in concrete structures 1049
33 Using recycled aggregates in concrete construction 1076
34 Basic non-destructive testing for concrete structures 1112
35 Measuring permeability in concrete 1145
36 Some additional topics 1172
37 Considerations in repair of concrete structures (Part 1 of 2) 1212
38 Considerations in repair of concrete structures (Part 2 of 2) 1243
39 Laboratory demonstration 1275
40 Review of the course 1290
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 1
Introduction and Course Overview
[FL] and welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

The subject of concrete engineering is acquiring tremendous significance as we continue

to use more and more concrete in diverse conditions, we use new materials new
technologies. We have more experience from previously built structures and we realize
that concrete is not a maintenance free material also in recent times there is a rising
concern about quality and durability of concrete construction.

1
(Refer Slide Time: 00:58)

So, in other word a concrete engineer needs to update the understanding of concrete as a
material and its properties. We should be aware of the development of special concretes
and their properties, the applications, the limitations are conscious of the limitations of
the existing test methods and specifications and work towards establishing new methods
and specifications as may be required for new concretes.

You also need to understand the issues are shifting to a more performance based thinking
rather than simply a prescriptive thought process. We must integrate words such as
maintenance and repair in the overall lifecycle of concrete, concrete structures are not
only designed. But the need to be maintained and repaired over that service life and that
is what needs to be integrated as an overall lifecycle of concrete structures.

2
(Refer Slide Time: 02:01)

Therefore, this course aims at revising the basic principles underlying concrete science
and engineering, because without that we cannot approach the subject of modern
concrete or new developments in concrete. We need to develop a framework which helps
us understand the present day scenario in concrete engineering as for as testing
specifications use of new materials applications limitations. We should go through some
issues in special and high performance concretes and their quality control and test
including performance based thinking durability maintenance. So, this is basically the
outline that we will try to go through in this course.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:56)

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Let us review or understanding of reinforced concrete, reinforced concrete basically
consists of reinforcing steel bar ashore here and that bar is embedded in concrete. Now,
concrete itself it consists of as is shown in this picture here coarse aggregates which are
shown as dark brown embedded in paste. Now, paste is used loosely here because
actually it is molted, if this aggregate is coarse aggregate and if it is fine aggregate which
is sand then this diagram refers to mortar and then in deeds and particles are embedded
in cement paste. If we look at the neighborhood of a small particle, we have the
aggregate particle here as shown and this is surrounded by paste.

However, in this small zone here there is the so called transition zone and this transition
zone as we shall see later on, there is a very important role in determining the properties
of the concrete. Now, if we look at a small element of paste which is the cement and
water hydrates we find or we could model this small element as comprising of solid c s h
are hydration products in which there are lot of these pores, so this pore structure. Now,
we will try to understand what the geneses of these pores are, we will try to understand
what is important of these pores. And how we try to control the amount of pores, and so
on. How do we measure the pores? And then try to understand how the concrete behaves
as a material.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:00)

Continuing from here, let us look at this particular picture here which is a solid slice of
concrete real life concrete, we can see that these are large aggregate particles all over the

4
place which are suspended in of phase of molder which are the smaller particles
somewhere here. All these smaller particles here and then there is cement paste this
picture is modeled as shown here, that we have these larger particles which could be
considered is coarse aggregate. We have the smaller particles which could be considered
as sand then we have these still smaller particles which are cement and there is a lot of
water or some amount of water which has been added to this whole mix.

If we modeled this mix in a volumetric manner that all these coarse particles here or all
these coarse aggregate particles are slumped into one place here and that is what have
called gravel or coarse aggregate. Then all these smaller particles coming here as sand
cement particles find a place here water find its place here. We will find some amount of
air or wide space is always an integral part of concrete, what this picture shows is the as
for as concrete is concerned no matter when the normal concrete or a special concrete or
other concrete for a given volume of concrete.

We have a certain volume of a coarse aggregate a certain volume of sand cement and
water and there is some air the importance of this air component, we will discuss later
on. We will also discuss how the constituents such as cement sand and coarse aggregate
changes in special concrete and this change that we make in the concrete materials
makes a concrete behaves in different manner.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:11)

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In other words, what we are saying is that normally we can consider concrete to be made
up of coarse aggregate fine aggregate cement which is O P C for all practical purposes
begin with and water. However, increasingly mineral and chemical admixtures have been
used in concrete as part of the materials to obtain or engineer the properties of fresh and
hardened concretes. Concrete as we see in the series of lectures has different properties
that we need to assure that it has properties in the fresh state. The properties harden states
and the given mix that we have should satisfy the properties not only the fresh state, but
also the harden state.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:02)

To reiterate or concrete engineers talk about paste is cement and water mortar is sand
added to this paste that is mortar consist of cement water, and sand concrete our normal
understanding sense is coarse aggregate added to mortar. That is concrete basically
consist of cement water sand and coarse aggregate this is largely understood.

However, what is the need to change or reiterate this at this point in time the idea
basically is that ones we understand this, then when we add special materials or new
materials to this old combination of cement water sand and coarse aggregate. Then we
have to understand or we have to decide, whether it will be counted towards the paste
volume or the mortar volume or the coarse aggregate volume and so on. So, keep this in
mind as we go long in these lectures.

6
(Refer Slide Time: 09:12)

Once again, this picture only reiterates what we talked about earlier concrete is a model
of suspension of coarse aggregate particles mortar, mortar on the other hand is a
suspension of fine aggregate particles in paste and paste is a suspension of cement
particles in water. So, in another words the only fluid component in the whole the only
fluid component in concrete is what we add paste we add cement make paste. Then we
add sand to that we get mortar and we add coarse aggregate to that and then we get
concrete. So, this is basically the model that we will follow as we go along this course.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:06)

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The suspension as included here deviates from a normal understanding of the word in the
following ways concentration of particle is very large making it almost a paste. Now,
differentiate between the word suspension and a paste, a paste in the normal usage of the
word is a thick viscous material which may have a large concentration of solids. In the
case of cement paste the particles suspended in water also react with it, so that is to say
that the paste is made up of reactive particles. And because of this reaction the
composition and properties of the paste need to be understood to be time dependent.

As time progresses more cements reacts with water less cement is available for further
reaction with water and the formation of hydration products alters the properties of paste.
It is not a paste in the sense that we have water and we have certain particles suspended
in it and the properties of that composition or the composite do not change with time. In
this case, we have those particles reacting with water all the time or at least sustain with
hydration reaction complete. And this reaction leads to assumption of those particles, and
formation of new hydration products and that alters the properties of the paste.

So, what we understand this it helps us greatly and understanding the properties of
concrete in all substances. In other words paste is the only reactive phase all other
aggregates which is whether sand or coarse aggregate are simply inert fillers which
means that cement particles react with water. As we have said the properties of cement
change over time as a result if this continued hydration and hydration starts as soon as
water and cement come in contact.

8
(Refer Slide Time: 12:21)

Now, let us look at the basic process in concrete engineering from the point of view of
the project, we normally have a specific condition or set of specifications and a structural
design and construction methodology and then try to go through these steps. Now, what
are the steps we need to choose the constituents what kind of cements what kind of
coarse aggregates what chemical admixtures or whatever is they have been used
purposely, which means how much each of these constituents will be used mixing those
constituents. How will they be mixed transporting these constituents from the site of
mixing to the site of placement placing?

Now, placing refers to the concrete been placed at the actual site of placement if a
building is been constructed the building site is the site of placement. However, the
concrete is placed in a particular beam or a slab or a column which may be at a height, if
it is a foundation it may be at a depth and so on. So, this placing here refers to the
process by which the concrete actually brought to the site of placement, which is the
building construction site is actually placed in the final place, or the final location where
the concrete needs to be set after the concrete has been set.

It needs to be vibrated or consolidated what process will be use there and finally, the
concrete needs to cured that is we need to be mixture that enough water is available to
the cement to ensure complete hydration or as complete the hydration as is possible. So,
in a project after this specific conditions and specifications the design and construction

9
methodology an engineer tries to understand or tries to look at how all these process is
will be managed. Thus, thus the discussion of this project specific and the engineer needs
to pick up the best option from those available.

So, for a particular project one may choose a particular method of transportation for a
particular project one may choose a specific constituent, a specific method of vibration
sometimes vibration is not possible. Therefore, you need to change the constituents of
the material and so on and so forth. So, concrete engineer really needs to know the
importance of all these processes and how they are interconnected and that precisely
objective of this course.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:00)

We often use the word special concrete now what is special concrete given the fact that
there are several process is involved there is a certain range of the variable over which
the operation or the process can be called normal. Now, if any processes goes out of
range or another special process becomes involved the concrete needs to be treated as
special.

10
(Refer Slide Time: 15:29)

In other words, what makes the concrete or a concreting operation special it could be
which are sub materials other than the usual ordinary Portland cement fine and coarse
aggregated water. We could use fibers, we could use chemical admixtures or mineral
admixtures and it is a concrete special or mixing can be done in different ways it could
be mixed manually which is done for very small projects or very small applications. We
could use a small mixture that we often do in the laboratory studies and then there is a
ready mix concrete plant. So, that the mixing is done any of these places or in these
places is quite different and that makes the concrete for the same ingredients.

For the same proposition, the properties will be different because the mixing process is
different transportation concrete can be transported in different ways conveyor belts
agitator trucks placing issues concretes placed with shotcrete or tremie vibration concrete
could be form vibrated. It could be needle vibrated the environment of placing where the
concrete is actually placed. For example, in a factory and that is why we make precast
concrete elements, if it is under water it could be extreme hot or cold weather or if their
structures happen to be highly congested.

Then the kind of concrete that is required in any of these environment by different the
property that we require for concrete we may require high strength or low strength, we
may sometimes require early strength which is especially for this case. For example, in a
repaired project we may require a low heat of hydration which is the case and case of

11
mass concrete project and so on. Sometimes, we use high flowing concrete when the
reinforcement is very congested as we should see in this course curing conditions gunny
bags plastic sheets curing compounds so on. So, the point is that wants that any of these
conditions or any of these processes goes out of a normal range, we would call the
concrete and the concreting operation especially.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:56)

Now, let us look at some examples of this slide as look at materials. Now, this is the
moment we add is fibers to concrete the properties change, but so also we need to change
the properties of the mortar the properties of the materials that we have otherwise
selected for the normal concrete. Let us look at mixing this is the process of manual
mixing.

12
(Refer Slide Time: 18:22)

So, that you can see that water is been dumped into this larger pile here, where all the
ingredients have been put together and a kind of mixing process is as that will be
completed in this it will be different.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:37)

If the same proportion and the same material was mixed for example in a small
laboratory mixture or for example, in a R M C plant.

13
(Refer Slide Time: 18:44)

Mixture that is a ready mix concrete plant the concrete is makes for commercial
applications, so that is about mixing.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:53)

Now, let us look at transportation how concrete is transported.

14
(Refer Slide Time: 18:53)

This slide here shows transportation of concrete using the conveyor belt this picture here
on the left shows concrete transported with an agitator truck, this drum here has to kept
rotating in order to ensure that the concrete does not set and stick to the sides of the drum
depending on the time of travel. Some chemical admixtures are some thing is to be added
to ensure that the setting process does not get started to an unacceptable level because
hydration anyways starts as soon as water and cement are in contact.

It is only matter of delaying that process, if we are transporting in a conveyor belt then
concrete is being exposed to the atmosphere that is it is liable or it is likely to get ride in
the process of the transported. These are the things which could be corporate in our
thought process when they are choosing the proportions when the materials and so on.
Let, us look at placing this process here.

15
(Refer Slide Time: 20:06)

Both of them they referred to shotcrete, shotcreting as you can see here is a process
where the concrete is being deposited on the surface without any form work on the other
side this makes this concrete very special. We cannot use the kind of concrete here for
normal construction, on the other side, if we want to concrete using shotcreters the
processs, we cannot use normal materials and process.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:42)

This slide shows construction of concrete with the tremie, now in this case concrete is
being deposited at depth possibly under the water using a tremie. Now, the concrete is

16
been dropped all the length of this pipe and it is ensured or it needs to be ensure that the
pipe is always embedded in the concrete as more and more concrete is dumped.

In the concrete rises in this form work here and the construction process is completed
this slide shows, concrete construction using a tremie concrete is allowed to fall through
the pipe. It needs to be ensuring that the pipe is always buried in the concrete that has
been placed as more and more concrete is placed into the form work, it raises up and
gradually fills the total space completing the construction process.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:45)

Let us look at vibrations we have form vibrators we have needle vibrators and sometimes
we use rural compacted concretes and we have form vibrators which are the stuck or
which are applied on the form work and the concrete within is vibrated. We have internal
vibrators which is the normal concrete practice with the needle is inserted inside, the
concrete that to be placed and the concrete is consolidated into the air and so on, the
environment of placing.

17
(Refer Slide Time: 22:21)

This is the factory environment of concrete placement where we use where we get
precast concrete elements. So, the environment here is largely controlled that is not
exposed to rain, it is not exposed direct sunshine and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:40)

Whereas, this is a completely different environment concrete is been placed under water.
And we can see the diverse are involved in the process, these are the reinforcing bars that
you can see as concrete is been placed.

18
(Refer Slide Time: 22:58)

This is an example of congested reinforcement in concrete construction, now you can

imagine that if the concrete has to place around this structure or around this part of a
structure how difficult it is for a concrete is to flow. So, all these gaps are a still or as the
concrete flows through these gaps, how it will be vibrated. So, it requires a special
concrete to be used so that concrete find its way through the gaps, these reinforcing bars
which are very close to each other and still we compact it.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:37)

19
An example of its special properties of concrete, these two pictures here shows high
workability concrete and the method that we use evaluate the workability of such
concretes cannot be the normal method such as the slump of the compaction factor.
There are be the steps like slump flow of the U tube test which is used, we will discuss
this later in detail, but we can see that the slum flow here is nothing but how much is the
spread of the concrete was the slump cone is removed.

This is the U box test that the concrete is filled in one side of the U and the barrier in the
bottom is removed and the concrete flows to the other side. If the concrete was to behave
with the perfect or a fluid then at the end of this process of the concrete moving from one
side to the other. The two sides will be exactly at the same height in normal concretes we
do not even expect the concrete is able to flow through the barrier here as far as the
curing is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:47)

These pictures here show three example where curing is been done with gunny bags or
plastic sheets or application of water in curing compounds from outside and so on. So,
what the model of the story is that each of these processes has a normal range and ones
we deviate from that range this construction process becomes special. Therefore, we
need to have special concretes we need to use special materials and be aware of that in
our thinking as for as quality control and specification test methods are concerned.

20
(Refer Slide Time: 25:28)

Indeed for a special concrete the entire operation all that processes have to be looked at
more carefully, the case. And proportion of materials methods of transportation placing
and curing all have to be specially designed and special measures need to be taken for
quality control and assurance in construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:48)

Now, what are the properties of fresh and hardened concrete as for as the properties of
fresh concrete is concerned workability air content segregation resistance temperature,
and setting time these are some of the fundamental properties.

21
(Refer Slide Time: 26:00)

That we will take about in this course as for as the hardened concrete is concerned
characteristic compressive strength is something we aware of tensile and or flexural
strength is a requirement. In a special cases modulus of elasticity stress strain curve creep
shrinkage permeability durability, all these are different properties of hardened concrete
and they need a special methods or specific tests to be carried out.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:40)

In order to make sure that the concrete needs the requirements coming to the contents of
this series of lectures. What we will try to do is the revise the fundamental concrete, we

22
try to propose the concrete mixtures. We will go through the stages of concrete
construction we talk about special concretes, we will discuss a little bit about
mechanisms of deterioration in concrete we will talk about reinforcement in concrete
structures. We will talk a little bit about maintenance of concrete structures in other
words we will try to go through the subjects which are concrete engineer of the present
day is often required or expected to know this set of discussion here.

The discussion here will help one who wants to study more about any of these issues in
rate a detail at any of the point in time. Please note that the discussion in this set of
lectures will assume that this is not a first time that you are hearing about the concrete
and perhaps this is not the last time you are hearing of concrete. I hope that in this set of
lectures you are able in to still ensure a sense of curiosity and better understanding as for
as behavior of concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:59)

Now, revision of fundamentals of concrete what we will try to do is overview of the

course which is what we are doing today. We will talk in detain or in some detail about
constituents of concrete properties of fresh and hardened concrete hydration of cement
and strength development of concrete. We will talk about quality control and it quality
assurance in quality control construction coming to proportion of concrete mixes.

23
(Refer Slide Time: 28:25)

We will go back to this picture and we will talk of basic proposition were only waters
cement sand and coarse aggregate is involved and we will talk about additional topics or
special topics proportioning when chemical admixtures or mineral admixtures are used. I
would like to reiterate that at the end of it, it is of fixed volume of material and within
that fixed volume. It is our responsibility as concrete engineers to proportion the
different constituents whether it is the only basic constituents as shown here or any other
special constituents that we may choose to add in the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:13)

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As far as the stages in concrete is concerned, we have already gone through it the
materials, and proportioning mixing transportation placing vibration curing coming to
special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:24)

There is fiber reinforced concrete mass concrete self compacting concrete underwater
concrete roller compacted concrete and shotcretes. These are some of the examples that
we need try to cover in this set of discussions here.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:46)

25
Now, let us look at fiber reinforced concrete for example, I am not sure whether the
picture is very clear, but what is shown is the fibers that are sticking out here between the
two fractured phases of concrete. That is what makes these concrete special normal
concrete were just fractured, but fiber concretes because of the presence of small fibers
here does not fracture in a brittle manner, it still carries some load after the concrete has
largely filled. Now, these are the ideas that are important where concrete has largely
filled means there has there is perhaps a large amount of deformation which has
occurred, but the concrete can still sustain at least some load.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:37)

Now, let us look at mass concrete mass concrete these are examples of dams or hydraulic
structures these concrete structures are very large in scale in geometry and so on. Placing
concrete in these structures has certain special problems, one it is not very heavily
reinforced. Number two, we may choose to use large aggregates number and three we
may choose to use large volumes of concrete in a single port.

Now, the moment we decide to use large volumes of concrete in a single port, we have
the problem of heat of hydration and related thermal stresses. So, once we start talking
about a concrete were specials efforts needs to be made to handle the heat of hydration of
cement that concrete is basically called mass concrete. And that is what we will try to
study in one of the discussions that we have coming to the self compacting concrete.

26
(Refer Slide Time: 31:39)

We have shown this picture earlier were this concrete is almost like a fluid it flows. And
we use slump flow or the U tube or the U box test to measure its properties under water
concrete, we have also seen this picture.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:00)

You can imagine that it requires a very different kind of concrete which will be required
for this kind of placing. The concrete has to be highly segregation resistance that is the
cement particles that should not just get washed away, and should not move away roller
compacted concrete.

27
(Refer Slide Time: 32:22)

Now, when a concrete is placed in a very open space for example, in a high way of that
matters sometimes in a dam then concrete need not to be very fluid because there is
enough space for the concrete to be placed and compacted reinforcement is very small.
We may use, what is called the roller compacted concrete and this roller here could be a
vibrator roller, which act as a form vibrator to this concrete which has been to this
concrete which has been placed on the surface.

So, a form vibrator is applied on the form work where as in the case of roller compacted
concrete the vibrator if it is a roller vibratory roller the vibration is applied to the surface
of the concrete directly. So, these for different technology cause the properties of
concrete that are required to be different. Therefore, the concrete engineer is called a
point to propose in the mix differently and do quality control in a different manner.

28
(Refer Slide Time: 33:33)

As far as shotcrete is concerned, we have already seen these pictures and we know the
concrete is to be placed in this application has to be designed very differently from the
concrete, which is required for under water placement or roller compacted concrete and
so on.

Let us talk little bit about the mechanisms of the deterioration concrete structures, we
know from our experience in the last about the 45 years that concrete is not a
maintenance free material. And when concrete structures are exposed different
environments the concrete deities the reinforcement corrodes. Sometimes, there is a
problem with the material that we use, and that shows up after only a reasonably a long
time causing the structures to reiterate and so on.

29
(Refer Slide Time: 34:19)

Some of their mechanisms that we take on discussion her are reinforcement corrosion
alkali aggregate reaction and cyclic freezing and thawing. So, let us take a look at what a
reinforcement corrosion does to the concrete structures.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:33)

If we look at the pictures here we find that corrosion has caused lot of damage to this
concrete structure. It has cause a lot of damage in this part of the structure here we can
see that the cover concrete has spoiled of has been removed and the reinforcing bars
which are here have been exposed and are very much the reinforcing bars. Here are

30
exposed and are corroded it is the corrosion of these bars has caused cover concrete to be
removed from the concrete structure from this pick. This equally here that at the bottom
of this reinforcing bars has cause the concrete to be removed from this structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:29)

We said in the beginning of the discussion today, that aggregates are all inert fillers that
is true when the normal sense of the world when the normal aggregates and normal
cements have been used some aggregates. However, have be found to be reactive that is
they react with the hydration products of the cement paste and that cause the concrete to
deriterate and what we called that is the alkali aggregate reaction. So, what we seen
alkali aggregate reaction is shown here that is a lot of surface cracks of here on the
concrete and they cause the stress. They are visually unacceptable and also cause
problems as for as the structural behavior of the concrete is concerned.

31
(Refer Slide Time: 36:24)

Now, coming to freezing and thawing of concrete structures cyclic freezing and thawing
that is the concrete is placed in an environment or the structures is in an environment
where the temperature of the atmosphere becomes less than zero and more than zero or
higher than zero causing the water in the concrete to freeze and thaw cyclic. Now, we
know that if that happens the water expands and contracts and this change in volume of
the water which is within the concrete.

In the process system causes the kind of deiteration which is shown in these pictures; we
can see that the surface of concrete has become very, very poor. Some, concrete has been
upgraded we can see here that healing has occurred that is surface this mortar has been
lost similarly, this case here aggregates pop outs.

32
(Refer Slide Time: 37:30)

Coming to the reinforcement concrete structures, we know that typically we use steel as
a reinforcing material we will not talk much about steel in this course, but we will talk a
little bit about epoxy coated bars and fiber reinforced plastics. These two are alternative
reinforcing material to steel and are important for a concrete engineer to know because
they are answers in cases where concrete is likely to be subjected to reinforcement.

Corrosion the steel is susceptible to corrosion epoxy coated bars are less susceptible to
corrosion fiber reinforced plastics are not corrosive nature or fiber reinforced plastics are
not corrosive. Therefore, an engineer should know about epoxy coated bars and fiber
reinforced plastics.

33
(Refer Slide Time: 38:22)

Let us take a look at epoxy coated bars epoxy coated bars are nothing but a normal
reinforcing bars, like this which have at deposited coating of epoxy material. This coated
material prevents the surface of the reinforcing here from corroding that is this prevents
surface from being exposed to oxygen, or water which are the necessary ingredients for
causing the corrosion. So, that is what a how a epoxy coated bars works and here we see
pictures of how epoxy coated bars are placed the place just like a normal reinforcing bar
except a certain precaution have to be taken.

This picture here shows bend epoxy coated bars because when a bend in epoxy coated
bar we subject the outside phase of the epoxy coated bar. The coating here is like to
crack and that causes, and that requires that the epoxy coated bar should be properly
tested before they are used in a concrete construction.

34
(Refer Slide Time: 39:43)

Now, coming to fiber reinforced plastics, now fiber reinforced plastics are F R P bars are
basically consist of these fibers, which are embedded in or resin matrix this fibers could
be made of carbon or element or glass. There are different materials that can be used for
resin and ones this is structure is set then it can be commercially available, and these
fiber reinforced plastic bars are available in different shapes and sizes that can we see in
this picture here.

On this picture here, this one here are a typical example where the F R P bar really
resembles the reinforce, or normal steel bar with all the ribs and so on to ensure that the
bond between the concrete and the reinforcing bar is also compromised. Coming to the
last topic that we will try to cover in this set of lectures is the maintenance of concrete
structures.

35
(Refer Slide Time: 40:52)

Maintenance involves non-destructive testing evaluation based on non-destructive testing

data and comprehensive plans for maintenance different methods are available for non-
destructive testing of concrete structure. We will be familiar with test methods like sprit
hammer or the ultrasonic pulse velocity and so on. We must remember that these
methods give a certain numbers, and those numbers actually need to be evaluated
whether that number is acceptable, unacceptable. What is the variation that is absorbed in
those numbers and so on when we look at some of issues. We will talk of the thought
process involved in a comprehensive plan of maintenance.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:43)

36
With this I come to an end of discussion today and I would like to acknowledge the help
and all the support from Japan society of civil engineers. In Tokyo, the Kajima
Corporation in Tokyo, friends and colleagues of I I T Kanpur, construction industry in
India. And specially Professor Uomoto of the public work research institute in Tsukuba
whose also whose a Tsukuba in Japan formerly professor of civil engineering university
of Tokyo, who gave me some insight into this concrete into this wonderful material
concrete. I hope to share some of my experience with you beginning the next class.

Thank you.

37
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 2
Constituents of Concrete
(Part 1 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:19)

Welcome back to these lectures on concrete engineering technology. Beginning from

where we left last time, this is the subject matter for this course revision of fundamentals,
proportioning, stages in construction, special, mechanisms of deterioration,
reinforcement, maintenance.

38
(Refer Slide Time: 00:36)

We begin our discussion today with fundamentals of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:41)

Within this, we will be talking of introduction and overview which we completed last
time, constituents of concrete, properties of fresh and hardened concrete, hydration of
cement and strength development in concrete and, quality control in concrete
construction. So, beginning with constituents of concrete.

39
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

We have already seen that normal concrete contains coarse aggregate , fine aggregate,
cement, which is ordinary Portland cement. For the time being unless we add some
mineral admixtures, also unless we add some mineral admixtures and water other than
mineral and chemical admixtures.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:21)

We had seen this picture as well, where we saw concrete as a multiphase material
comprising of coarse aggregate s suspended in mortar, sand particles suspended in paste
and cement particles suspended in water. That was our understanding. This picture here

40
was the volumetrics of the concrete mix, where the coarse aggregate, sand, cement and
water very importantly air had been discussed. These constituents are arranged in a
concrete matrix.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:58)

Continuing from this, we have defined the paste is cement and water, mortar is paste and
sand and concrete is mortar and coarse aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:10)

Now, roughly speaking, as far as normal concrete is concerned, cement is about 5 to 15

percent, Water is about 14 to 21 percent, Sand is about 24 to 30 percent, Coarse

41
aggregate is about 31 to 50 percent. In other words Coarse and fine aggregate together
could constitute as much as about 65, 70 and sometimes 75 percent of the overall volume
of concrete. So, I have already given you the answer to this question here whether this
composition is by weight or volume. Indeed, there is air which is about half a percent,
may be 5,6 percent of concrete volume depending on whether we are talking of air
entrained concrete or non air entrained concrete which we will talk about later.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:04)

Now, if we look at a rough schematic of the relative volumes once again, this picture
here shows regular concrete mix, where there is 10 percent of Cement, 18 percent water
2 percent I think is Air and there is a fine aggregate and coarse aggregate settled here.
So, that is the rough volumes of a regular mix and that is pretty close to what we talked
about last time.

Now, if we convert the volumes of these individual elements to the definition which we
had talked about in terms of paste, mortar and concrete or coarse aggregate. Then it is
about 25 percent paste, about 50 percent mortar and the balance 50 percent is coarse
aggregate. So, coarse aggregate in other words just serves as inert filler, economical and
cheap filler in the concrete matrix. That is a function which we must remember, when we
carry out any detailed study of concrete proportions, concrete materials, concrete
properties and so on.

42
(Refer Slide Time: 04:15)

Compared to this what has been called a regular mix here, we will come back to this self
compacting concrete later on, but if we look at this volumetric changes in self concrete
or self compacting concrete, there is not much change. As far as the paste content itself is
concerned of course, the properties of the paste are very different. What really happens
is, that the coarse aggregate volume is reduced from about 45 percent to 36 percent and
that additional volume, which is generate left behind, there are some fines which are
added. Now, it could be normal sand which is increased or some additional admixtures
or the additional material which is used and serves the same purpose as sand. So, we
must understand and this is their answer to the question in one of the previous slides. As
to whether there is a need to change our definitions of paste and mortar because, paste is
not only a mixture of cement and water in that sense and, particles which are added to
the concrete, which have the same fineness as cement can qualify to be paste.

Similarly, any particles that qualify as sand as far characteristics are concerned, they
would add to the sand content even though they are not normal sand. Therefore, we must
understand that the definition that we have given to mortar as sand, water and cement
needs to also include any other material, which qualifies as sand or which can be used as
sand or a sand substitute.

43
(Refer Slide Time: 06:10)

With this back ground, let us get started and study a little bit more about the properties of
coarse and fine aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:18)

Let us start with coarse aggregate, this picture here shows some coarse aggregate, which
consists of crushed, uncrushed or broken stones. The larger pieces of coarse aggregate
offer less surface area when particles with an equivalent volume, but smaller in size now
this has an important bearing on our treatment of concrete as we will see later on.

44
The hardened surface area of coarse aggregate, the more mortar you require to coat all
the aggregate pieces. Therefore, the demand of mortar that is the volume of Mortar needs
to be increased if we are working with finer aggregates, finer coarse aggregates or
smaller coarse aggregates. Whereas, if we are using larger size of coarse aggregate
particles, since the surface area is smaller, we can make do with a smaller volume of
mortar.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:21)

Now, here what we see is coarse aggregate of different sizes, there is coarse aggregate
of this size which is very small, this size which is slightly bigger and relatively larger
coarse aggregate particles. So, in a manner of speaking it make sense to use the largest
possible aggregate size for a particular construction. Now, what governs the choice of the
maximum size of the coarse aggregate? One of these considerations is given here, the
nominal maximum size of coarse aggregate should be as large as possible, but in no
case greater than one fourth the minimum thickness of the concrete member that we are
talking about whether it is a column or a beam or a slag.

Provided that the concrete can be placed without difficulty so, as to surround all the
reinforcement thoroughly and fill the volume fill all the corners of the form work. We
must understand or remember that all these done provisions like one-fourth are a matter
of convenience and different codes and specifications give different numbers. They give

45
different values and this number one-fourth and the description here is based on Indian
documents the Indian specifications.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:40)

Another property of course aggregates be often seen is that we use round gravel or
crushed stone. Now, round gravel is what is shown here and crushed stone is what is
shown here. Round gravel is basically river gravel with rounded corners, crushed Stone
is the result of crushing rocks and having angular edges.

You will recall that the previous picture that is this one had all angular aggregates and
Crushed Stone as the coarse aggregate s.

46
(Refer Slide Time: 09:22)

Continue from here, what is Fine aggregate? Fine aggregate is what we see here is
basically sand and it is an aggregate which is finer than 4.75 mille meter, serves to fill
the voids in coarse aggregate and contributes to the volume of mortar, which is related
to the workability of the concrete mix. Again 4.75 is only a universally accepted
demarcation between coarse aggregate s and finer aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:55)

A little bit more about sand, this sand here is coarser than this sand here, because both
of them are sand. That is they are very fine in nature, they have no reactive properties

47
and therefore, do not quality a cement and therefore, they are fine aggregate depending
on the requirement whether we are trying to plaster a wall or we are trying to mix it in
concrete, we may use one sand or the other or at times we may try to blend different
sands to get a particular size distribution and so on. Sand consists of naturally occurring
granular particles, granular material, composed of finely divided rocks and mineral
particles and affect the bulk void content and the frictional properties of the concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 10:46)

Coming to the properties of coarse aggregate , we often talk of shape, the maximum size
of aggregate, the particle distribution or the particle size distribution, density, porosity
and strength. Now, I would only like to draw a rotation to porosity, porosity means the
aggregates are porous, that means they have internal pores and these internal pores can
be full of water or may be not full of water. When we are talking of dry aggregates we
are talking of aggregates which do not have water in them. At times after a rain and so on
the aggregates the volume of pores in the aggregate is fully saturated with water. And the
porosity is related to strength. No porous aggregates will have lower strength aggregates
with less porosity will have a higher strength. Density is another property which we will
discuss in greater detail later on.

48
(Refer Slide Time: 11:53)

Now coming to the first of these important properties which basically deals with the size
distribution and the size of aggregates, this here is a sieve set which is used to determine
the particle size distribution. So, we have all these different sieves which are arranged in
a certain manner and we put an aggregate sample at the top and shake the sieves. Once
we shake the sieves, we have particles retained at different sieves and these particles
which are retained at different levels.

We take up measure of that in terms of the weights and the relative weight retained at a
particular sieve with respect to the total amount of aggregate taken and we get the
amount of aggregate or the percentage of aggregates of that particular size. What this
sieve analysis gives us is the maximum size of particles, a size compared to which
hundred percent particles are finer, that is if we have a 20 mille meter sieve and
everything, that is all the aggregates from the sample passed through the 20 mille meter
sieve, we say that the aggregates are at most 20 mille meter in size.

And then there is information like 95 percent or any other number finer than the 20 mille
meter sieve, maybe we have 5 percent retained on the 20 mille meter sieve and 95
percent passed through that. So, that gives us that 95 percent of the particles are finer
than 20 mille meters. From this analysis as I have already talked to you, we get the
amounts of aggregate retained on different sieves and that gives us the particle size
distribution.

49
(Refer Slide Time: 13:40)

Let us look at an example of this, suppose we begin with an original sample of 510.5
grams and we have these different sieves, which are used which are set in that order and
we have a pan at the bottom to collect particles, which are finer than 75 microns. Once
we have all these particles which are placed here and we shake the sieve set and get these
numbers, that 9.2 grams is retained, here 67.6 is retained, here and so on. And we get a
total which is 508.5, which is different from the total of 510.

Let us take an example of particle size distribution as determined from sieve analysis, we
can talk in terms of weight retained or we can talk in terms of weight passing, which in
turn will give us the percentage passing which will give us the final term a certain size.
Now, if we take aggregate sample which is 510 grams or 510.5 grams to be precise and
pass it through a sieve set which starts with 4.75, 2.36 and so on and goes all the way to
the pan, which collects the residue or which collects material, which is finer than the 75
micron. Sieve in this case and we should the sieves in a certain manner as required and
we find out how much material has been retained on each of these sieves.

If we get this as the numbers, then what we can get from here is these numbers which
are individual retentions at the different sieves. So, if 9.2 grams is retained, we can say
that 2 percent of the aggregate taken is retained at the 4.75 mille meter sieve and so on.
So, these are individual retentions. Another thing which is often very important or very
interesting to note is the cumulative retention and cumulative retention means and

50
cumulative retention is reflected here. What it says is that 2 percent is retained at 4.75
and this 13 percent which is retained in 2.36 is also added to this and we get 15 here
similarly, 20 gets added to this and we get 35 here and so on and so forth till we get this
number 100 here. Now, this as I mentioned is the values for retained, the retention at that
particular sieve, then we have percentage passing that is 98 percent because 2 percent
were retained here, 98 percent of the particles passed through that sieve. Because 15
percent particles were retained here then 85 percent have passed through and so on. So
this is two different ways of representing the sieve data which is given here.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:57)

And this data, when it is plotted on a graph look something like this, that this is the
particle sizes or the sieve sizes and F is the percentage finer than. So, basically what it
says is that there will be a particular sieve size here and all the particles will be finer than
that and that is nothing will be retained on those sieves. Similarly, if we come to any
other number here, we get the percentage of particle which are finer than that number.
So, this kind of a representation of the percentage finer than versus the sieve size can be
used to get information about 100 percent finer than what number? 95 percent finer than
what number? 50 percent finer than what number? 10 percent finer than what number?
and so on.

51
(Refer Slide Time: 18:08)

So, if we are looking (( )) if we want to know in a particular application, that given a

sample of aggregates whether it is fine or coarse, what is the sieve size corresponding to
which 95 percent particles are finer than that number, we just go here go all the way to
this point and try to find out what is that number. So, that is how we try to determine 95
percent, 50 percent, and 10 percent and so on and so forth. Please note that this scale
usually is a log scale it is not plotted on a linear scale.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:29)

52
Another parameter that we use to represent the particle sizes of aggregates is the so
called fineness modulus. It is a single parameter that reflects the overall particle size
distribution of particles in a sample. It is defined as an empirical figure obtained by
adding the total percentage of the samples in an aggregate which is retained on each of
the specified series of sieves and dividing the sum by 100.

This is a very difficult text to read and to understand.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:15)

My suggestion to you would be to actually see how the fineness modulus is calculated
for a given particle size distribution, which is basically this kind of a data, which is
determined from the lab. How we determine the fineness modulus from here is one
exercise, which I am leaving for you to do. We will probably give the answer in some
later presentation?

53
(Refer Slide Time: 19:30)

Coming to the shape of coarse aggregate particles, we do not talk of shape of fine
aggregate particles. For coarse aggregate particles apart from the normal shape, we
sometimes use the term flaky aggregates. We use the term elongated aggregates. Now,
what does flaky mean? Flaky means the aggregates with one dimension much less than
the other two so, a notebook for that matter is a flaky object elongated aggregates are
those where one dimension is more than the other two.

So, this pen for example, is a elongated object and we do not want too many flaky or
elongated particles in our sample of aggregates which we are going to use in concrete.
For various reasons now, how do we determine the amount of flaky particles or the
elongated particles? So, there are these standard gauges which are used and we are not
getting into the details of how to use these gauges, but you should know that yes there
are standard methods of determining; what particles or what percentage of particles are
flaky, what percentage of particles are elongated and what should be the maximum
amount of elongated or flaky particles that are permitted in an aggregate sample for use
in concrete. And those specifications are all machine dependent, application dependent,
client dependent and so on and so forth.

54
(Refer Slide Time: 21:12)

Coming to the strength of coarse aggregate s, it is only indirectly determined estimated

or measured using one of the following indices, which is crushing value, impact value,
abrasion value and these 3 indices are sometimes collectively referred to as mechanical
properties of coarse aggregates. When I say that they are indirectly determined, what
does that mean? Strength if we understand normally would mean we should take
aggregate sample and crush it till it fails.

Now, that normally is very very difficult to do and is not so much required as far as civil
engineering applications are concerned or normal civil engineering applications are
concerned. Therefore, we may do with these 3 parameters crushing value, impact value
and the abrasion value which are good enough for our purposes. Let us try to understand
how they are determined.

55
(Refer Slide Time: 22:10)

In principle, the measurement in all the 3 cases involves the following we just measure
the tendency of an aggregate or it is susceptibility to powdering that is how much powder
gets generated. More powders generated lesser is the strength and vice versa that is if we
take an aggregate do something to it and a lot of powder is generated, then we say that
the aggregate is weaker. Whereas, if we take the aggregate, do the same things to it apply
the same load and so on and no powder is generated. Then of course, the aggregate is
very strong. How is the powder generated? The powder is generated by the fracture of
the edges, the angular edges of the aggregate and that is what we get tendency of an
aggregate to powder

56
(Refer Slide Time: 23:00)

Quantification of the powder generated and how do we determine? How much powder
has been generated? That requires a specific sieve size, which should be decided and
particles finer than that are classified as powder. For example, as far as Indian standards
are concerned, they say that for crushing value particles finer than 2.36 mille meter. And
the same value of 2.36 mille meter is used for impact value as well, particles finer than
2.36 mille meter are powder. Whereas, for the abrasion test particles finer than 1.7 mille
meter are considered as powder.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:42)

57
Naturally, what that means is that once the amounts of powder generated are known, the
values can be calculated in terms of the percentage of the original sample used and given
the nature of the experiments it needs to be ensured, that the original size or the original
sample does not contain particles of that size. We cannot have fine particles or powder
originally present in the sample. Because that will interfere with our measurement of the
impact value or the crushing value and so on. And therefore, the particles which we use
as samples for testing are required to be drawn from only a specific size band.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:24)

Now, let us quickly look at some of the tests that are carried out for crushing value the
aggregate passing through 12.5 mille meter and retained on 10 mille meter sieve are
used. They are oven-dried at a temperature of 100 to 110 degrees for 3 to 4 hours and
then they are filled in a cylinder and the weight of the aggregates is measured. That is we
now, know how much aggregate have we taken, the apparatus which is this cylinder is
now, placed in a compression testing machine and loaded at a uniform rate so as to
achieve a load of 40 tonnes in 10 minutes. So, the rate of load is also specified, the load
is released and the sample is sieved throughout 2.36 mille meter I have seen sieve and
the fraction passing through that sieve is measured and that is how we get the crushing
value of the aggregates as B divided by A into 100.

58
(Refer Slide Time: 25:27)

And this is the set up which is used for determining the crushing value, this is the
cylinder where the aggregates are filled, this is the plunger which is used over this
cylinder at the time of load application.

Naturally, now the crushing value that we get that is the amount of powder that is
generated at the end of the test, will depend also on how the packing has been done, that
is how densely we have packed the aggregates in this cylinder. And therefore, test
methods very often must specify how exactly the samples has to be taken as far as filling
the cylinder is concerned.

59
(Refer Slide Time: 26:19)

Now, coming to the aggregate impact value here, this is another test where again the
sample is similar passing through 12.5 mille meter and retained on 10 mille meter. It is
over-dried, filled in a cylinder and weight of this aggregate taken as measured and the
cylinder is placed in an impact testing apparatus. So, now we are talking of a impact
testing apparatus, which we will show in a later slide and 15 standard blows are applied
the sample is sieved through a 2.36 mm sieve and we determine how much is the fraction
of the aggregates that pass through the sieve.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:01)

60
And we get the aggregate impact value in terms of v by a, this is the apparatus here for
the aggregate impact value. This part here shows the cylinder where the aggregates are
placed for determination of the aggregate impact value and this set up here has a certain
mass and it falls through a certain height and constitutes one standard blow. So, once
were release this plunger here it comes and impacts the aggregates in this box or in this
cylinder and we take it back using these handles and, drop the weight again and that is
what is repeated 15 times and we try to powder the aggregates which are here. All the
aggregates which are powdered break they are that amount of powder generated is
measured.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:07)

And we get the aggregate impact value. Coming to the aggregate abrasion value, this test
is carried out slightly differently and how we do it is we take a certain sample weighing
let us say A for loading in a Los Angles abrasion testing machine.

This test sample and an abrasive charge now, this charge is nothing but a steel balls of a
certain diameter having a certain weight and a certain number of those balls constitute
what is called the abrasive charge. They are placed in the Los Angles testing machine
and the machine is rotated at a speed of 20 to 33 revolutions per minute for a fixed
number of revolutions. The aggregates now, are sieved through a 1.7 mille meter IS sieve
and material coarser than 1.7 IS sieve is weighed. And from this value here which is the
amount retain on the 1.7 mille meter sieve, we work out the portion finer than the 1.7

61
mille meter sieve. So, in this case even though the aggregate abrasion value is exactly the
same that means the percentage of particles which are finer than 1.7 mille meter with
respect to the original size, we do not measure the percentage finer than directly what we
measure is the weight retained at the 1.7 mille meter level and then try to determine how
much has been how much is passing through.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:49)

That is because, some of the powder that is generated is often left in the machines which
is like this, the Los Angles testing machine is shown here and within this we have the
charge and the aggregate particles which are moved in a rotary motion and some of the
powder or the finer particles get left behind in the Los Angles abrasion testing machine.
And therefore, it is better that we measure the percentage retained on the 1.7 mille meter
sieve and then calculate the percentage finer than which helps us in turn calculate the
abrasion value of the aggregates.

62
(Refer Slide Time: 30:31)

Now, after the mechanical properties have been discussed.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:37)

Now, let us look at density, porosity and strength of coarse aggregates. Porosity again is
indirectly measured through the extent of water absorption. The procedure involves
taking a dry sample, immersing it in water and measuring the change in weight
expressing the weight of water absorbed as a percentage of the dry sample. Strictly
speaking, porosity should be giving us an idea of the size of the course within the coarse
aggregate . Now, those are very very fine and techniques such as poro-symmetry and so

63
on which we will see later on in the course or specialized techniques, which for normal
civil engineering construction and normal evolution of aggregates are not required.
Therefore, civil engineering practice has the wide reasonably, well I should say based on
simple measurement of porosity as determined from water absorption alone.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:38)

Now, other terms like density and specific gravity. We all know the density is mass per
unit volume, but let us try to understand this in the context of coarse aggregate s a little
more vigorously.

Density basically means aggregates have inherent porosity. And therefore, the concept of
density should be cared here. Now, let us understand the concept of density and specific
gravity more rigorously in the context of aggregates. Since, they have inherent porosity
these concepts have to be carefully understood. The dry specific gravity is the absolute
density of dry aggregate, that is there is no water in the aggregates and we determine
somehow the volume of the solids in the aggregate, we determine the mass and we
determine the dry specific gravity. SSD specific gravity is the saturated surface dry
specific gravity and that means the specific gravity of SSD aggregates that is those
aggregates were water saturates the pores within the aggregate, but does not wet the
surface.

64
(Refer Slide Time: 33:00)

So, what we are looking at really is an aggregate particle which may have an inherent
volume of pores like shown here.

This is the volume of solids in the aggregate particle this is the volume of voids in the
aggregate particle and this is the total volume. So, dry specific gravity means this volume
is not filled with water and the total volume that is taken could be simply v s or if it is
impossible to determine v s it could be v s plus v p because v v that is the volume of
pores that is the volume of voids. In the coarse aggregate is really very small in the case
of SSD this is saturated with water and we get the mass and the volume and we
determine the SSD specific gravity.

65
(Refer Slide Time: 33:57)

Then, there is a concept of bulk density in certain engineering applications it is important

to know the bulk density of the aggregate. That is the density often sampled of a bulk of
aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:10)

That is we have these aggregates all over the place and we want to find out the bulk
density that is all these void spaces in between these aggregates will get included in the
volume.

66
So, we talk of two types of voids in an aggregate system; one is the intra aggregate void
that is, the void that we showed in the previous slide, which is the voids present within
aggregate particles. Then, there is inter aggregate voids that is the void, which which are
present between aggregate particles. So, when we pack the aggregates more or less let us
say by damping them by vibrating them and so on, the intra aggregate voids do not
change because that is an inherent property of the aggregates. Whereas, the inter
aggregate voids are the ones that change. If we pack an aggregate mode thoroughly then
the volume of inter aggregate particles goes down if we do not pack them thoroughly
there is more inter aggregate voids.

So, the bulk density includes all the inter aggregate voids as is indicated on this slide.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:27)

Now, let us look at a example of this calculation consider a box measuring 15 cm by 15

cm by 15 cm. In the next experiment, we fill the same box with SSD aggregate that is
those aggregates where the intra aggregate voids are saturated with water and now, since
the weight of water will get included that number will be slightly higher. Let us say is
5500 g and then, we have water poured into that box the weight of the SSD aggregates
and water is 7225g. So, we have an experiment where, we have a box we have filled with
dry aggregate then, we try to fill it with SSD aggregates and finally, we pour water in
that box to fill all the inter aggregate voids with water and get a weight of 7225g. Now,

67
based on this information here, we carry out these simple calculations we calculate the
volume of the box which is 15 into 15 into 15 and turns out to be 3375.

Then, we calculate the volume of water, in this part here, and there what we get is 7225
minus 5550 because that is the mass of the or volume of the assuming. The density of
water to be 1 the volume of water which is there in the inter aggregate voids is 7225
minus 5550 and we get this number 1725. The apparent volume of the aggregates is 3375
which is the volume of the box minus 1725, which is the volume of water and we get
1650 as, the volume of the aggregates. The absolute volume of the aggregates is 1650
minus another 100 which is 1550 so, this 100 here is the total amount of intra aggregate
voids and that is what is getting filled with water when we are using SSD samples.

So, the apparent volume which includes the volume of the voids this total volume is
1650 and if we remove this volume and we just consider this volume then, we have a
volume of 1550. Now, we can calculate the dry specific gravity of the aggregate sample
as 50400 which is the mass of the coarse aggregate. Dry coarse aggregate divided by
1550, which is the absolute volume of solids as far as aggregates are concerned and we
get this number SSD specific gravity is 5500, which is the mass here, divided by 1650
which is the volume here, which is this total volume and we get this number as far as
bulk density is concerned. We can talk in terms of a dry bulk density where the total
mass will remain the same 5400g, but the volume that we use is the volume of the box
1333375 and we get this number.

Similarly, with the SSD bulk density can be calculated as, 5500 divided by 3375 and we
get 1.63 water absorption which is a measure of the porosity of the aggregates is
basically 100 grams of water absorbed by 5400g of aggregates and we get a water
absorption of 1 point 85 as far as the inter aggregate voids the percentage or the total
volume of inter aggregate voids is concerned. We get 1725 divided by 3375 into 100
which is 51. So, these numbers tell us a lot of very important lessons one is the
relationship between specific gravity and bulk density. So, specific gravities which are
3.48 and 3.33 are almost twice, the bulk density, which are only 1.6 and 1.63. When we
pack these aggregates the weight as the numbers are arranged there is as much as 50
percent 51 percent of the voids within the aggregates.

68
(Refer Slide Time: 40:17)

Now, coming to a very different kind of property of the aggregates which is chemical
reactivity and this is true for both fine and coarse aggregate s. We know that hydration of
cement with water leads to the creation of pore solution into which several ions from
cement go into solution notable among them are ions of calcium, hydroxide or the
hydroxyl ions sodium and potassium. They are usually considered chemically inert and
do not react with the pore solution, this is the coarse and fine aggregates, they are the
inert part of the concrete mix usually. However, in the presence of certain minerals in the
parent rock the aggregates become reactive and when it comes to the evaluation of
aggregates whether it is coarse aggregate s or fine aggregates.

69
(Refer Slide Time: 41:11)

We must also ascertain make sure that the aggregates are chemically inert. So, let us
recall this picture where, we now could have reactive particles whether it is the coarse
particles or it is the finer particles. They are surrounded by an alkaline solution which
could be rich in sodium or potassium ions or hydroxyl ions calcium ions and so on, so as
far as alkali aggregate reaction or the reactivity of these aggregates is concerned. It has
been found that usually it is the sodium and the potassium ions which are the potential
culprits of cause in this reaction, and they are coming into the pore solution from cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:53)

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There are several tests that, we can use and some of them are listed here, there is a quick
chemical test or mortar bar expansion test or the concrete prism expansion test and there
are appropriate or corresponding.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:07)

ASTM numbers for that the principles are just outlined here, as far as the quick chemical
test is concerned, the method involves aggregate samples reacting with alkali solutions at
an elevated temperature of 80 degrees centigrade.

And, the evaluation is based on the degree of reaction which is measured in terms of the
change in alkalinity of the solution and the amount of dissolved silica. When a crushed
specimen of the aggregate is placed in a concentrated alkaline solution of sodium
hydroxide. A sodium hydroxide is used as a substitute for the pore solution and the
aggregates are powdered to a certain size and allowed to stand in that solution at higher
temperature. So, it is and so it is an accelerative test and is completed within 24 hours
and we must understand that the result is qualitative and some aggregates produce
insignificant expansion, in spite of having a high alkali soluble content in spite of having
a high soluble silica content.

71
(Refer Slide Time: 43:16)

Mortar bar expansion test involves producing mortar bars cured over water at 37.8
degree centigrade at a high RH that is a high relative humidity. And bars that expand in
this harsh environment by more than 0.2 percent after 14 days are considered to be made
with aggregates that are potentially reactive bars, that expand between 0.1 and 0.2
percent are known to produce deleterious expansions sometimes. Sometimes not the test
duration in this case ranges from 14 days and subsequent measurements are often taken
at 1,2,3,4,6,9 or 12 months and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:05)

72
Concrete prism test includes using concrete prisms instead of mortar samples and the test
duration as far as the test method standard test method is concerned is 16 days. Before
we end the lecture today, let us leave a few questions for you to think about and we will
answer them in the at some other point in time. We talked about the shape of coarse
aggregate particles and we talked of flaky and elongated particles

(Refer Slide Time: 44:25)

The questions I would like you to think about are, why is the use of these particles not
permitted in a concrete mix what is the maximum amount of these particles permitted in
an aggregate sample. I would also encourage you to look at pictures or look at the
aggregates themselves. In terms of the flakiness and elongated nature we must remember
that aggregates are naturally occurring material and it is not possible for us. As civil
engineers to simply say that we will not use aggregate samples, which have elongated
particles or flaky particles and as engineers therefore. We are allowed to use aggregate
samples provided the amount of flaky particles and the amount of elongated particles do
not exceed. A certain maximum and this is the maximum that I want you to determine
from different specifications as far as the answer in this question is concerned.

73
(Refer Slide Time: 45:33)

Then, we talked in terms of a particle size distribution and we discussed this graph in
reasonable detail, as to how to obtain this graph and so on, the question to you. Is if we
have a particle size distribution that is we have a set of particles, we have a sample of
aggregates and the particle size distribution looks something like this. What conclusion
can you drawn about the nature of the sample that we are talking about?

(Refer Slide Time: 46:11)

Similarly, if the particle size distribution plot looks something like this, then what is the
conclusion that you draw as far as that particular sample is concerned. Remember that

74
this graph here is basically a representation of the particle size distribution of the sample
that, we are testing and the shape is a very very important indicator of the nature of the
sample that we are talking about. And this line here and the previous line that we talked
about here they should be also they give us very important clues, as to what the nature of
the particles is.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:59)

And then we talked in terms of the strength of aggregates in terms of the crushing value
impact value and the abrasion values. Now, I request to you would be to look up the data
for these values for different aggregate types. Different aggregates types means different
rock types, because aggregates are coming from different rocks; and different rocks have
different strengths, they have different porosities. And therefore, it stands to a reason that
depending on the rock type, the crushing value, the impact value and the abrasion value
of aggregates as determined by the test that we have just described will be different and I
would encourage you to find out if you can find information about these values for the
different rock types.

Compare this data for rounded and crushed aggregates, if we can find that data that will
be helpful for you to understand, how different rounded particles and crushed particles or
crushed aggregate are as far as the strength is concerned as determined by this
parameters. The strength could be the same in principle, but depending on the shape of

75
the particle, the measurement we are carrying out would give us different values; and
that something, which I would like you to appreciate based on data.

Then I would like you to prepare a table with the acceptable values of these properties
for different applications. See concrete is used in different applications; it is used in
roads runways bridges dams and so on. Now, in each of these different applications, we
do not really require aggregates, which have the same amount of strength. As you can
imagine different concrete applications may require different strengths of aggregate.
Therefore, different specifications may lay down different values as far as impact
strength or crushing strength or abrasion strength is concerned as acceptable for that
particular application. So, comparing that in a tabular form would help you and enhance
your understanding of the subject. And with that we come to an end of a discussion
today.

Thank you.

76
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 3
Constituents of concrete (Part 2 of 2)

Welcome back to this series of lectures on Concrete Engineering and Technology.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

So far, we had looked at the different subjects that we will cover and we were trying to
do a revision of the fundamentals of concrete. We were trying to study the constituents
of concrete. In the last class, we had discussed that normal concrete consists of coarse
aggregate, fine aggregate, cement and water.

77
(Refer Slide Time: 00:30)

Discussions on mineral and chemical admixtures have been postponed to a later date. In
the last class, we had discussed the properties of coarse and fine aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:34)

Moving on, we discuss the properties of ordinary Portland cement. Once again, let us
take a look at this slide which we have seen in the previous lectures as well. We look at
cement, which is the binder phase of the concrete mix. It is about it is so cement and
water.

78
(Refer Slide Time: 01:05)

Let us look at this slide again, which shows a schematic of the concrete as a multiphase
composite material and aggregates are embedded in a matrix of cement, water, paste,
mortar whichever we want to look at it.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:43)

Roughly by volume, we has to see that the composition of concrete is basically about 7
to 15 percent of cement, 14 to 21 percent of water, 24 to 30 percent of sand and about
30 to 50 percent of coarse aggregate with a small amount of air in the concrete.

79
(Refer Slide Time: 02:06)

Now, if we look at it in a different way, paste constitutes about 25 percent, mortar

constitutes about 50 percent and the coarse aggregate could be between 40 to 50 percent
of a normal concrete, as the concrete becomes special. For example, if we are talking of
self compacting concretes, we have seen that the coarse aggregate content goes down
even though the paste content more or less remains the same.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:35)

We should remember that cement is the only reactive component in concrete and
provides the binder for the aggregates as can be once again seen in this picture here.

80
Therefore, the properties of cement are crucial in determining the properties of concrete.
In other words, if we want concrete to have certain properties we should make sure or
we need to make sure that the cement has certain properties. Further, cement is also the
most expensive of the materials.

Therefore, for economic reasons and of course there are other reasons as well, efforts
need to be made to minimize the cement content in a concrete mix. We should
remember also the codes and specifications in different countries prescribe a minimum
and a maximum content of cement in a concrete mix. The minimum is often prescribed
from points of view of durability the maximum is prescribed from the points of view of
shrinkage, heat of hydration and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:45)

Now, let us take a look at this picture of ordinary Portland cement. It is a very fine
powder usually grey in color. What we will do in the discussion today? We will talk
about manufacture of material that is, manufacture of OPC. You will spend some time
talking about the constitution, the components of the ordinary Portland cement and the
physical and chemical properties. We will spend some time may be today or the next
day on hydration characteristics of cement.

81
(Refer Slide Time: 04:19)

Now, coming to the manufacture of ordinary Portland cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:23)

It consists of argillaceous materials containing alumina, and bauxite is a common

source, calcareous materials containing calcium carbonate or lime, limestone is mostly
used. Siliceous materials containing silica of which clay is the usual soaps. These
constitute the bulk of the raw materials for ordinary portland cement. Now, in addition
to these, there are impurities like the oxides of iron or oxides of alkali metals such as
sodium or potassium, which are present in these naturally occurring materials. Though

82
the quantity of these impurities is quite small, their presence cannot be neglected when
studying the properties of cement as we will see later on in this discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:21)

Continuing with our discussion on how cement is manufactured? Depending on whether

the raw material is fed in this dry or the wet slurry form, the process of manufacture is
called dry or wet. The constituents in the raw mix are usually about eighty percent is
limestone and twenty percent clay.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:45)

83
The basic steps in the process involved are, the constituents are finely ground and
mixed. So we have the different constituents of cement coming in, they are ground and
mixed. The mixture that we get now is heated to a state of partial fusion in a kiln in a
temperature of about 1400 and 50s to 1500 degree centigrade. This fused mass is cooled
to produce clinker. Clinker is the product of cooling of this mass. The last step is, the
clinker is ground to a very fine powder in ball mills. At this stage, gypsum, which is
about three percent by weight is added to the clinker and what we get is ordinary
portland cement.

If we study the process of manufacture carefully, the different steps involved are
grinding and mixing of the ingredients, heating of these ingredients, the temperature
involved, cooling of the clinker, grinding of the clinker, addition of gypsum. Now, each
of these processes has a major impact on the properties of cement that we get. One
should be aware of that.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:13)

Now, why is gypsum added? If it is not added, the tri calcium aluminate that is C 3 A,
which we will study later in the cement reacts too rapidly with water and the hydration
products become very and the hydration products formed render the cement unworkable
very quickly. So, it does not serve our purpose. Thus to regulate the setting process,
gypsum is added to the clinker at the time of grinding.

84
(Refer Slide Time: 07:47)

To recapitulate, portland cement is manufactured by heating a mixture of limestone and

clay in a kiln, to about 1400 to 1600 degree centigrade. At this temperature, the raw
ingredients chemically interact to form new phases, so the oxides of the different
elements, the oxides of the different elements calcium, silica, aluminum and so on. They
form new phases. The heat treatment is called clinkering, the material that comes out of
the kiln is called clinker and it emerges as more or less golf size balls about 2
centimeters 2 and a half centimeters in diameter. That must be finely ground with
gypsum and sold as ordinary portland cement. A picture of clinker is shown here now.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:43)

85
Now, coming to the constituents of ordinary Portland cement as the raw materials are
oxides of calcium.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:47)

That is calcium oxide, silicon that is silicon oxide, aluminum that is Al 2 O 3 or

aluminum oxide and iron that is Fe 2 O 3 the product, which is OPC is naturally made
up of these oxides. Typically, the composition of OPC is expressed in terms of the
percentage of these oxides and the table here gives some typical values. Calcium oxide
is about 60 to 65 percent, silicon oxide is about 17 to 22 percent and so on. Notice here,
the small presence of sodium and potassium oxides, which are the oxides of alkali
metals that we talked about earlier in the discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:36)

86
I should point out that in cement chemistry, the oxides are commonly represented by
single letters. It is a convention that calcium oxide Ca O is represented as a C, silicon
oxide, which is Si O 2 is represented as S, Al 2 O 3 which is represented as Al 2 O 3
cement chemist call it A and Fe 2 O 3, the cement call it the cement chemists call it F.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:09)

Now, because of the fusion process, the oxides of the different elements get organized
differently and the cement is actually a solid solution made up of the following
complexes. Tri calcium Silicate, di calcium silicate, tri calcium aluminate and tetra
calcium, alumino ferrite, these complexes in cement chemist notation are written as C 3
S, C 2 S, C 3 A and C 4 AF. So, this is where you understand that when a cement

87
chemist says C 3 S; the C refers to C A O and S refers to Si O 2. This does not mean that
C 3 S comprises only of C A O and S I O 2 or C 3 A comprises only of C A O and Al 2
O 3. This part we will just study a little later, but these are the basic solid complexes of
cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:25)

Now, the OPC is made of these complexes such as C 3 A etcetera. It is not possible to
determine the exact percentage of these complexes in any chemical analysis because
these complexes break up as we add any solvent like acids to it. Water cannot be added
and used in the process, because there is a chemical reaction involved and hydration
starts. It is common, therefore to actually express the chemical composition of cement
in terms of oxides. Then try to estimate the amount of complexes using empirical
relationships.

88
(Refer Slide Time: 12:10)

These empirical relationships are called the Bogue’s equations and are used to estimate
the quantities of complexes C 3 A, C 2 S, C 3 S and C 4 AF in a cement from the given
or observed or measured oxide compositions. So, these are the complicated looking
equations which a cement chemist uses to estimate the amount of C 3 A in a given
cement. What he knows is the oxide composition that this particular cement has this
particular calcium oxide silicon oxide Fe O 3 and so on. Based on that he makes an
estimate using Bogue’s equations and finds out how much of C 3 S, C 2 S, C 3 A and C
4 AF, which are the four principle components of ordinary portland cement. How much
of these components is there?

89
(Refer Slide Time: 13:12)

Now, this is just a repetition of the previous slide to give an idea of the oxide
composition of a normal cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:19)

Based on the Bogue’s equations, the composition in terms of these complexes gives you
the range of 8 10 percent C 3 A, 30 50 percent C 3 S, 20 45 percent C 2 S and 6 to 10
percent of C 4 AF. Depending on the different ways of manufacture, the kind of
processes about which we talked about, the temperature at which the raw material is
heated, the rate at which the clinker is cooled and so on, the kind of raw material that is

90
used. We can try to have cements having different compositions of these solid
complexes.

So if you look at these complexes alone, ordinary Portland cement comprises of roughly
50-70 percent of the dicalcium and the tricalcium silicates and the remaining is tri
calcium aluminates and tetracalcium aluminoferrites, that is C 3 A and C 4 AF. A broad
understanding of the rough composition of ordinary portland cement in terms of C 3 A,
C 2 S, C 3 S and C 4 AF is very important for a concrete engineer to understand and
predict the properties of concrete for a particular cement. The other way around that is,
for a particular concrete, what is the kind of cement that the concrete engineer needs to
use. The cement chemistry need not be understood very deeply, but the fundamentals
must be clearly understood.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:08)

Now, coming to the properties of ordinary Portland cement, we can divide the
discussion of the properties in terms of physical properties which could be specific
gravity and fineness, consistency, setting time, initial and final strength, development
which could be early 28 day or ultimate. I would only like to point out that strength
development in cement or for that matter concrete continues for a long period of time. It
is only a matter of convenience that we take 28 days as a basis for our quality control
and other tests.

91
Otherwise, as far as the science is concerned, we can have the strength development
going on for a much longer period of time depending on the kind of cement that we are
using. Therefore, depending on the application we should be free. We should indeed
understand what our requirement should be for early strength, 7 days strength, 3 days
strength, 28 days and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:38)

Then we have properties; which includes soundness, ignition loss and alkali content
which have the role importance and the reasons for which we must study them. We will
try to study some of these properties in our discussion today. Coming to the first part
which we will take up is, the fineness of cement. Now, fineness is basically how fine the
cement powder is and it is determined basically by the kind of process that has been
followed in grinding the clinker.

92
(Refer Slide Time: 17:00)

As I said, fineness is a measure of the size of the cement particles and is expressed
either in terms of a sieve size because that is the most common, most easily understood
method of trying to find out the size of a particle. We saw that in the discussion when
we talking about aggregates, coarse aggregates and fine aggregates and also as a
specific surface area that is in terms of square centimeters per gram or square meters per
kilogram. Remember that, it is not possible to sieve very fine particles, because if the
particles become very fine, then the sieve size has also to become equally finer and
physically that has its limitations.

Therefore, instead of only you relying on sieve size analysis, we often try to work with
other methods and try to get a measure of the fineness of cement in terms of square
kilogram in terms of square meters per kilogram and so on. As far as Indian standards is
concerned, the residue of cement sample on a 90 micro meter sieve after sieving should
not exceed the following percentages by weight and certain numbers are given. That is
what we say in a code is that the cement should have at least a certain fineness. This
numbers basically indicate that the amount of particles coarser than this particular sieve
size should not exceed a certain number.

We should remember that in the last 30 to 40 years a lot of development has taken place
in the grinding technology as far as cement industry is concerned. Therefore, the
fineness of cements over the time has increased. It is become so much more possible

93
now to have cements which are very, very fine. Now how much that very fine is is
precisely? What is a measurement here and usually, we do it in terms of square meters
per kilogram.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:14)

This is one of the most simple apparatus that is used to measure the fineness of cement
called the Blaine Air Permeability Apparatus and is based on the principle of passage of
air through a bed of cement. The time is measured and this time is related to the fineness
of cement in terms of a specific surface area. Intuitively, it is clear that if we have a box
where we pack small particles and we have air to pass through this bed. If these
particles are very fine and are very heavily compacted it will become more difficult for
the passage of air. That is, it will take a longer time for a certain volume of air to pass
through a densely compacted mass of fine particles.

If the particles were coarser or the particles were less compacted the passage of air
would be a lot easier and that is what we do in this test. We have the air passed through
such a bed, this is what is called the bed, we have the air passing through this bed and
the time it takes is recorded. This time is related to the fineness of this particles that we
use. There is a calibration curve we use in standard powders and is used to estimate the
fineness of cement. There are other methods as well. I am leaving that out as a self
study project.

94
(Refer Slide Time: 20:58)

Now, coming to the consistency and the initial and final setting times, which is also an
important property of the Cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:08)

What is consistency? Consistency is a measure of the workability of the cement paste.

Workability means, how easy or how difficult it is to work with the paste. What does it
mean, how do we relate to it? If we mix very little water with cement it will be very
difficult for the paste to take the shape that we wanted to take. For example, filling a
circular form work and so, on passing through the reinforcing bars and that is what

95
happens in a concrete. If we add more water to it, then the paste becomes more workable
and it is easy for the paste, or for that matter than the concrete to be worked with, that is
it moves through the reinforcement more easily. It occupies the nooks and corners or
form work more easily and so on.

So that is the intuitive, qualitative picture of consistency. It is a measure of the

workability of the cement paste, that is, how easy or how difficult it is to work with the
paste. There is a term standard consistency, and that refers to the percentage of water by
weight of cement required to produce a paste of a certain predetermined consistency. So
if we have a predetermined consistency and a method to determinate it. Then we can say
that okay, there can be different cements.

Therefore, for different cements what is the amount of water that is required to produce a
cement paste of that particular consistency and that can actually be different. It could
vary with the particle shapes of cement or the shapes of cement particles, it will vary
with the fineness of the cement particles and so on. So for the same cement depending on
fineness and other things we could have different standard consistencies. That is
something which concrete engineers must be aware of.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:15)

As a matter of definition, standard consistency as per as Indian standards is concerned, is

defined as that consistency which will permit the Vicat plunger to penetrate to a point
five to 7 millimeter from the bottom of the Vicat mold when tested. We will look at the

96
Vicat mold and the test in a few slides. We will look at the Vicat mold and the testing
procedure a little later.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:46)

Now, coming to setting; setting refers to the gradual hardening of the cement paste. We
should remember that the basic reason for popularity of cement concrete as a
construction material is its ability to mold itself into practically any desired shape
initially and then harden in that shape. As water is added to cement, the initial reactions
will cause the cement to set. Then there will be hardening and then there will be
strength development. So, we can on the time axis look at the whole process in these
three different steps setting, hardening and strength development. The strength
development could continue for several days. Setting and hardening are much shorter
processes.

97
(Refer Slide Time: 24:39)

Now, given that the chemical reactions between water and cement that bring about this
process, which could be setting, start immediately after water comes in contact with
cement. It is imperative that the cement paste remains workable for at least some time
after addition of water to enable placement of the concrete. Concrete is mixed at a
particular location, whether it is a mixer at site or a ready mix concrete plant which could
be several kilometers from the site. Then needs to be transported to the site of placement
and therefore, the cement paste or the concrete should remain workable for this period.

However, the cement paste does not or should not remain workable beyond the certain.
point so that concrete can harden and develop the required strength. So as engineers we
would like the concrete to remain workable so long as it is being transported from the
mixing site to the site of placing. But once the concrete has been placed, we will like the
concrete to harden and gain strength so that further work can be carried out.

98
(Refer Slide Time: 25:54)

Now, keeping the above in mind, test methods have been designed to determine the
penetration resistance, which has been taken as a measure of the setting process. So, if
there is a paste which offers a certain penetration resistance, we take a needle and try to
pears it with that needle. Then if the needle goes through very easily, the material is
offering very, very penetration resistance and in the case of cement paste. We will say
that the setting has not occurred. Whereas, if the needle is offered stiff resistance and we
are not able to penetrate the needle, we are not able to push that needle into the cement
paste. Then we say that the cement past has set or the setting has reached a certain level.
Arbitrary values for this penetration resistance have been taken to define initial and final
setting times of cement.

99
(Refer Slide Time: 26:54)

Now, as far as the Indian standards is concerned, the setting time of cement by Vicat
apparatus, needs to conform to the following requirements. The initial setting time
should not be less than 30 minutes and that enables the concrete to be transported and
placed and the final setting time should not be more than 600 minutes. That is 10 hours
and that means that beyond 10 hours, we would expect the concrete to have at least reach
the certain level of setting. We must remember that, the initial and final setting time of
cement or the standard consistency of the cement does not really reflect, how the
concrete will behave?

Cement paste or cement is just one of the constituents of concrete. Therefore, all these
tests are really quality control parameters that define the cement as a constituent
material. The setting times in the consistencies of concrete are a completely different ball
game and need to be discussed at a separate pointing time which we will take up for
discussion in subsequent lectures. Here we are talking of the constituents of concrete and
discussing the properties of cement. However, in order to put the properties of cement in
perspective. I have been taking examples of how this cement is used in concrete and how
the properties of cement would change the properties of concrete?

100
(Refer Slide Time: 28:34)

So, with this background, let us try to quickly look at the Vicat apparatus and how it
works? So this here is the Vicat apparatus. This is the mold in which the cement paste is
prepared and filled and these are the needles which are used to determine the penetration
resistance. So, this mold is filled up and placed below here on this platform and these
needles become part of this plunger here. Once we lift it from here and allow it to drop.
These needles penetrate into the cement paste to different degrees and depending on the
degree of penetration, which is measured using a scale. Here we try to find out the
standard consistency of cement, we try to find out the initial and the final setting time of
cement and so on.

101
(Refer Slide Time: 29:39)

As far as preparing the paste is concerned, which is to be placed in order to determine the
standard consistency of a certain times of cement, the paste can be prepared either by
mixing by hand or using a small mixture as just shown in this picture.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:55)

Coming to the other property of cement, which is strength development. Let us talk on
terms of how this property is determined.

102
(Refer Slide Time: 30:04)

We must remember that the hydration products of cement are the chief contributors to
the concrete strength. So, this cement and water when they react they form hydration
products and those hydration products which act as winders to the concrete are a very
important element of the strength of the concrete. It is also important to clearly
understand that strength development and the ultimate strength of the cement is a first
step towards understanding the strength of concrete.

So, we can have different cements which will have different curves for strength
development. So in a particular cement, may be the strength development goes like this
in another cement may be the strength development goes on like this. So, if we have a
cement, which has this characteristic and a cement b which has this characteristic cement
b is a rapid strength development. Cement b shows rapid initial strength development
but, a lower ultimate strength. Cement a comparatively shows lower strength
development initially, but a higher ultimate strength, and so on. So, once we understand
this characteristic rising out of this cement and cement paste studies or cement mortars
studies we can better understand the properties of concrete.

103
(Refer Slide Time: 31:37)

The strength obtained, we will discuss this later is related to the proportion of water with
respect to cement that is the water cement ratio, which we know in the mixture and the
properties of any other materials that are used in the specimen. Now, when we are
talking of cement standards or methods to control the properties of cement or specified
them in a certain manner, strength is one property. We want to determine the strength,
we do not usually determine the strength using cement paste that is just cement and water
is not normally used.

What we use is modern, that is we use sand as an added constituent to a mixture to

determine the strength of cement. If we use different sands at different times or different
places, it will be impossible to compare one cement with the other. Therefore, what we
do is we use standard sand in the experiments and keep the proportions of sand cement
and water at the same level.

104
(Refer Slide Time: 32:51)

As far as standards are concerned, or the way it is written is, the weight the average
compressive strength of at least 3 mortar cubes measuring say 50 centimeter square made
with one part of cement and 3 parts of standard sand conforming to IS 650 by mass. P by
4 plus 3 percent of the combined mass of cement and sand of water and prepared stored
and tested in the manner described in a certain standard shall be as follows. So, what it
says is that you mix water cement and sand. We use three parts of sand to one part of
cement and the amount of water to be added is P by 4 plus 3 percent of cement plus sand.

That is the combined mass of cement and sand, and once we do that then we try to mix
those, we try to prepare those specimens and have them tested at different points of time.
The standards could be 16 m p a of strength in 3 days, 22 m p a of strength in a certain
amount of 168 hours 160 m p a, 16 m p a strength in 72 hours, 22 m p a in 168 hours and
33 m p a for 672 hours, where you must remember that P is the standard consistency of
that particular cement. These numbers are of course, for a given cement, different
cements will have different requirements.

So, cement which is supposed to be used in repair work where we want high early
strength these numbers can be much higher. We may not so much depend on how much
is the strength at a later point in time. However, a cement where we want a strength
development to be later, there we may not be concerned so much with what is the

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strength development initially we are only concerned with the strength development
much later at different or a later point in hydration.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:16)

So, again if we take 200 now as an example, if we take 200 grams of cement whose
standard consistency has been found to be 32 percent, then for preparing the specimens
for strength determination, you need to use 600 grams of standard sand because that is 1
is to 3 and 88 grams of water. Now, 88 comes from P by 4 plus 3 and given the fact that
P is equal to 32, we have this as 11 percent of 800 which is nothing but 200 plus 600. So,
we are using 11 percent that is 88 grams of water and this mixture can be mixed by hand
or using a mixer.

Here, please remember that if this is the mix that we are using then the water cement
ratio of that mortar is 88 grams of water divided by 200 grams of cement, which is 0.44
or 44 percent. Now, this is the very important thing because, for the same cement if the
standard consistency is different that is if the fineness was different or something else
was to happen. Then the amount of water that we used will be different and therefore, the
strengths are likely to change.

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(Refer Slide Time: 36:50)

(Refer Slide Time: 36:52)

This picture only shows, this pictures, the two pictures here show the molds that are used
for casting the cement specimens or the mortar specimens for strength determination and
the form vibrator which is used. So, there is this mold which is fitted on to the vibrator
which when switched on compact the mold.

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(Refer Slide Time: 37:15)

Now, coming to the next property that we need to talk about the, soundness of cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:22)

This is usually measured using what is called a Le Chatelier’s apparatus, which is shown
in this picture here. The paste with a certain amount of water that is the water cement
ratio of the paste is determined based on the standard consistency of the cement and that
paste is filled in the mold. The assembly is then exposed to an elevated temperature for a
certain period of time and the change in the separation of the ends of the arms is taken as
a measure of the soundness of cement.

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So, what is basically happens is that this mold is filled with the cement paste that we
prepare, we measure the distance between these two ends of the tong and covered this
mold with a glass plate and so on. Expose it to a certain temperature for a certain length
of time and there is a slit here between the this this cylindrical mold has a split here.
Therefore, this cylindrical mold has a small slit at one end and as the cement is exposed
to elevated temperature and the reactions are accelerated. This distance tends to increase
because, if the cement is unsound it tends to expand in this mold and beyond a certain
amount the expansion is taken be deleterious. That is the cement is supposed to be
unsound or is declared unsound.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:00)

Coming to the alkali content of the cement.

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(Refer Slide Time: 39:04)

The property is especially important when trying to study the problem of alkali aggregate
reaction. Though usually the aggregates in concrete are inert and do not react chemically
with the pore solution, there are some exceptions when the presence of certain minerals
in the aggregate renders them reactive. Use of low alkali cement is one of the remedies
that is usually considered if the use of such aggregates cannot be avoided. So how do we
determine the alkali content.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:38)

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There is a chemical process which gives us the oxide composition of the cements and the
alkali content itself is represented in terms of the N A 2 O and K 2 O that is the sodium
and potassium oxides. These are basically impurities in the original raw materials of the
cement and it is common to express the alkalinity, it is common to express the alkalinity
of the cement as equivalent N A 2 O. What we do is to convert the amount of K 2 O that
is present in the cement to an N A 2 O equivalent by using a factor of 0.658. Now, what
is the basis of this factor, I am leaving it out as a self-study based on this equivalent of
equivalent N A 2 O cements can be classified as low alkali or otherwise.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:37)

If we go back to the picture that we had seen earlier, where the N A 2 O and K 2 O in the
cement composition were given to be 0.6 and 0.4 percent by mass. Then the N A 2 O
equivalent of this cement is 0.6 which is this number and 0.65 8 times 0.4 ,which gives
us a total alkali content or a equivalent N A 2 O content of 0.863 percent. So, that is the
base. Based on this number the cement can be classified as high alkali or low alkali
different specifications can put a number the 0.4 or 0.6 anything above that is high alkali
cements. As was mentioned in the previous slide, if we are forced to use reactive
aggregates, then we should try to make sure that at least the cement that is used in low
alkali that is at least one of the ingredients required for alkali aggregate reaction is
minimized.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:39)

Now, there are two properties which are left in this discussion from the list that we had
started with specific gravity on any specific gravity and ignition loss. These two
properties again I am leaving as a self study assignment to you and you can look up
standards which are available to determine them.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:16)

Now, the food for thought, that is recapitulate what we did in this discussion today. We
went over the manufacturing of cement and its properties. The methods that are used to
determine some of those properties setting time consistency and setting time consistency,

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strength fineness and so on. These are some of the questions which will help you better
understand the subject that we discussed today.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:45)

What is responsible for the grey color of cement? We all know that cement is usually
grey in color. What is the ingredient of the cement, which gives this color to the
material? Cement chemists often talk in terms of alite belite ferrite and so on. What are
these minerals? What are these compounds? Now the third question is, if a clinker is
ground finer, what if the clinker is ground finer? Will that change the standard
consistency of the cement produced? The clinker is the base material that is to be ground
and we get ordinary portland cement. Now, if we grind it in a method that the clinker is
ground finer, how will that part effect the standard consistency of the cement that is to
say how does fineness of the cement effect the standard consistency?

What is the shape of a cement particle? Is the next question are they spherical, are the
angular, what is the size of each particle? That is something, which one must know.
Finally, I think if you draw up a table comparing the specifications for different cements
in India, and compare it with provisions in some of the other countries. You have a better
idea as to what specifications say about what is the minimum fineness? For example,
what is the strength development? What is the strengths that we talk about? What are the
grades of cement? How are cements classified? With this, we come to the end of the
discussion today.

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Thank you.

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 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 4
Admixtures in Concrete - Mineral and Chemical

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:28)

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(Refer Slide Time: 00:31)

Welcome back to these series of lectures, on concrete engineering and technology. So far we
were on the subject of, revising the fundamentals of concrete. and we were talking about
constituents, and we had said that well normally, concrete consists of coarse aggregate, fine
aggregate, cement and water in addition to mineral and chemical admixtures, which are
added in certain special cases, to obtain desired properties in fresh, and hardened concrete. So
out of these, we had completed the discussion on coarse and fine aggregate and ordinary
Portland cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

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So in our discussion today, we will focus on, the use of mineral and chemical admixtures,
which are added to concrete, in order to modify or obtain the desired properties in fresh
concrete, or in hardened concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:20)

Now as far as admixtures in concrete are concerned, these are essentially additives to the
material; that is concrete, to achieve desired properties, which may be difficult with just the
normal constituents of concrete; that is cement, water, coarse aggregated, fine aggregated.
Considerations for adding these could be technical, which is basically the issue of properties.
We want a certain property in the concrete, which we cannot get, and therefore we need to
add admixtures. It could be economical, cement may be too expensive to use, is there a
possibility of using something else instead of cement, which is cheaper, without comprising
the properties of concrete, from the point of view of their specifications, or what is required.
Or there could be environmental concern. There is a certain material that we produce in the
industry, or somewhere, which if disposed off indiscriminately, leads to pollution and so on.
If it can be gainfully used in concrete; that’s the best thing that can happen. So there can be
an environmental concern, which would prompt us to use that material as an admixture in
concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 02:40)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:53)

Now we will discuss this issue of mineral and chemical admixtures, from a very engineering
point of view, and not get involved with the complex chemistry, of using admixtures in
concrete. Continuing our discussion, we have been talking of chemical admixtures, and
mineral admixtures. These are the two broad classifications under which, admixtures would
qualify. Now within mineral admixtures, we use materials, which replace cement; that is,
they are so fine, that their fineness is comparable to that of cement, and therefore we try to
treat them, as a part of cement in considering concrete. Other than these, there are certain
other materials, which are used at times replacing fine aggregate; that is sand. Common

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terminology for mineral admixtures, would include only those that replace cement of those
materials also, which can be used as replacements for fine aggregate; that is sand.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:07)

Now, coming to the first item; that is chemical admixtures. Chemical admixtures in principle,
interfere with the action of cement within concrete, and including its hydration. Depending
on the desired effect, a chemical admixture is chosen could be that they act as set regulators.
On account of hydration of cement, the cement sets. There is an initial setting time, there is a
final setting time, the process goes on, and we get hardening of cement and so on. Now set
regulation means a process, by which we either accelerate this process, or we delay this
process; therefore we could have accelerators or we could have retarders. These are useful,
when we are using cement or concrete in specific applications. In a repair job, where concrete
is required to have early strength, we may like to use accelerators.

Whereas in a job, where concrete is to be placed at a site which is far away, we may need to
use retarders. Another example could be, in hot or cold weather concrete. When the
temperature is very cold, and the cement may not set normally within a reasonable period of
time, we may like to use an accelerator. Similarly if we are working in hot weather, then we
may use a retarder, which will give us a little more time, to work with the concrete, so that it
does not set very rapidly on account of the high temperature. Other than set regulators, we
will have or we have, water reducers and high range water reducers. Now what is the
difference between water reducers and high range water reducers. Essentially these chemical
admixtures are those, which enable us to reduce the water demand in a concrete mix.

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So a water reducer, if it helps us to reduce the demand, by say 10 to 15 percent, a high range
water reducer is a chemical, which enables us to reduce that water demand by say 25 to 30
percent. So it’s only a matter of how much water reduction can be achieved, by using one
chemical or another. Now how this reduction in water demand, is used to an engineering
advantage, in proportioning concrete mixers, or in concrete engineering in general, that we
shall see through examples later on in this discussion. Then we have another class of a
chemical admixtures called air entrainers. We have seen in earlier in a slide that, concrete
contains certain amount of air. Now entrapped air is that which is, there in concrete without
any effort; that is, it is inadvertently there. However in certain cases ,we want to entrain air;
that is intentionally and consciously we want the concrete, to have a certain amount of air
particles.

Now those chemicals which help us achieve this objective, of entraining air in the fresh
concrete, which remains there while the concrete hardens, are called air entrainers. There are
other chemical admixtures as well, which are very special purpose admixtures. For example
corrosion inhibitors. There is literature which says, that if we use chemicals such as nitrites
and so on, we get a better performance from the point of view of reinforcement corrosion.
Presence of these nitrites interferes or modifies the pore solution in a manner that, the
reinforcing parts is such a concrete, become more resistant to corrosion. Electrochemical
process involving corrosion is slowed down and so on and so forth. So there are all these
classes of different chemical admixtures, which are used, in the concrete industry, in order to
modify the properties of concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 08:19)

(Refer Slide Time: 09:22)

So let us try to take a look, i have some of them in greater detail. Chemical admixtures are
usually available as liquids, and are often batched by volume. Since the dosage is very small,
very special care needs to be taken at the time of batching. The pure admixture is often
diluted with water, and then added as a part of the unit water content, required to be mixed, to
ensure a better distribution in the concrete. So we do not normally batch a concentrated
chemical admixture into concrete, rather we dilute it with the mixing water, part of the
mixing water, is added with the chemical admixture to the concrete, and then the mixing

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water is added, the remaining part of it is added, so that a chemical admixture is more
homogenously mixed, throughout the concrete, mix in the mixer.

As far as dosage is concerned, these are relatively small dosages, and since the action of
chemical admixtures, is relative to the amount of cement present in the system. The dosage is
often given in terms of cement content; that is, if the dosage is one percent by weight of
cement in a concrete it means, that if a concrete contains 400 kg’s per cubic meter of cement,
only 4 kg’s of the admixture per cubic meter of concrete, will be added. It should be noted
that, the weight of a cubic meter of concrete is about 200 is about 2400 kg’s, and therefore
these chemical admixtures constitute a very small percentage of concrete by weight. And
therefore the presence of these chemical admixtures, can be ignored, as far as the volumetric
of the concrete mix is concerned. They are usually considered, along with the volume of
water, which is present in the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:29)

Let us consider an example, let the chemical admixture that we want to use, be available in an
aqueous solutions; say 4 kg’s is dissolved in 10 liters of water. Now if 4 kg’s of chemical
admixture is required, the example that we saw earlier, that one percent of cement, is required
and there is 400 kg’s of cement in the concrete mix, we need 4 kg’s of the chemical
admixture. So in that situation, given that 4 kg’s of this chemical admixture, is dissolved in
10 liters of water. We can use 10 liters of this concentrate, and we say that 10 liters of
concentrate is added, and 10 liters of water is adjusted against the total water to be added. if 6
liters of if 6 kg’s of chemical admixture is required; that is about 7.5 percent of that concrete

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mix, then 15 liters of the concentrate is added and 15 liters of the water, adjusted against the
total water required; that is if the original water demand, was 180 kg’s per cubic meter. Then
in this case what we will do, is we will use 10 kg’s with the chemical admixture, and only
170 kg’s of water need be added to the concrete mix, and we will have a concrete mix, which
has a 180 kg’s of water, long, we will have a 180 kg’s of water; no doubt 10 of that was used
to deliver, the 4 kg’s of chemical admixture which was required. In this case similarly, if the
demand was again a 180 we need to use only a 165 kg’s of water, and 15 kg’s is already been
added as given here. And therefore this mix too, contains a 180 kg’s of water. No doubt 15
kg’s of that was used to deliver, the 6 kg’s of chemical admixture required.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:44)

Now let us come to set regulators, they are used under special conditions as I mentioned
earlier when concrete is used in hot or cold temperatures. There could be a need to regulate
the setting process, either to accelerate it, or to retard it. A retarder could also be used to
prevent formation of a cold joint, or a construction joint. An accelerator could be used in
cases when high early strength is required.

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(Refer Slide Time: 13:13)

Let us look at schematically, what happens when we use a retarding or a setting agent. Let us
see that this is the normal slump loss; that is if we have an original slump value. As the
hydration process continues, the concrete continues to lose its slump, it continues to become
stiffer, and this is the process the black line here, is the process for normal concrete; that is a
concrete which does not have any chemical admixture added to it .Now if I retard this; that is
we have a retarder, in an appropriate dosage, within the concrete mix, what will happen is,
that initially there will be no slump loss; that is the slump loss will be very small. Gradually
of course as the hydration process over takes, any kind of retarding action that is there, there
will be slump loss. And finally we will come to a situation, where there is no slump, and we
do not require any slump at that point of time. Similarly, if we want to accelerate the process,
we want the concrete to harden earlier. Then we use an accelerator, and we use, or we get
rapid slump loss, if we are using a accelerator in the beginning.

Now what this picture shows, is that depending on our need, depending on the requirements
of the job. We may need to specify, not only what is the initial slump of the concrete; that is
measured at the concrete plant, but we may also need to specify the slump, at a certain point
in time, that after the mixing has done, we want a concrete, which is almost having the same
slump, or having almost the same slump, as that at plant, or we do not want the concrete to
have any slump, we want the concrete to have reasonably set, or the hydration process to
have or the hydration process to have reasonably progressed. So this is the importance of
having, so that’s the importance of understanding, the action of retarders, and accelerators, in

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terms of how they, alter the properties of fresh concrete in this case slump, which is measured
or monitored in terms of slump loss.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:48)

Now water reducing agents, or high range water reducing agents. They are used to reduce the
water demand for a given slump; that is slump and water demand are linearly related. The
more water we add to the concrete mix, the higher slump we get. Now in order to get the
same slump, if there was another method, other than increasing water that is precisely the
water reduction, or the water reducers. And their effectiveness; that is the effectiveness of a
water reducer, can be measured in terms of the percentage of water reduction, that can be
achieved for a given dosage. So if there is an admixture with one percent, can cause or can
bring about, a reduction in water demand, to say 5 percent. And there is another admixture let
us say b, which at the same dosage of one percent of cement, gives me a water reduction of
15 percent, then b is more effective as a water reducer than a.

What we have really seen, if a 180 kg’s of water is required for a certain slump, without an
admixture, in a normal concrete, and we use an admixture, with a certain dosage, which can
reduce water demand by 20 percent. Then we get the same slump at a 180 minus 36, because
36 is 20 percent of 180 at 154 kg’s; that is concrete say a made with only 180 kg’s of water,
and a concrete b made with 154 kg’s of water, and a certain percentage in the chemical
admixture, which gives us 20 percent reduction in the water demand, will have the same
slump. This understanding is very important, when we are working with water reducers, and
high range water reducers. There are two ways of looking at it ;one is to say that, one percent,

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or a certain dosage of a chemical admixture gives me 5 percent or 10 percent, reduction in
water demand. The other side of the coin is, that if we want 15 percent water reduction, what
should be the dosage. So with this, and this is the discussion that goes on, when we do
proportioning of concrete mixes, using water reducers, or high range water reducers.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:38)

Now let us see how a water reducing agent, can be actually used in concrete engineering for
different purposes. Let us consider a concrete mix, where we will basically be talking only of,
the water content, the cement content, these two are given in terms of kg’s per cubic meter.
Water cement ratio which is a percentage, the chemical admixture, which is given as a zero or
one; that is either it is present or it is not present. Let us say the slump, which is given in
centimeters, strength which is given in M P A. We further assume, that water and slump, are
directly related, and similarly water cement ratio, and strength are directly related. So if we
increase the water content, we increase the slump. We reduce the water cement ratio, we
increase the strength. So with this fundamental understanding, let us say, that we have a base
mix, which has a 180 kg’s of unit water content, 360 kg’s of cement, which gives us a water
cement ratio of 0.5.

We do not use the chemical admixture to begin with, because it is the base mix, and this base
mix has a slump of 8 centimeters, and a strength of 32 M P A at a certain age. Now mix to,
where a certain amount of chemical admixture has been added. And we are able to reduce,
the water demand to a 160 kg’s. Now what are the implications, if we do not change the
cement content, we keep it the same 360 kg’s, what have we effectively done. We have

126
brought down, the water cement ratio from 0.5 to 0.44. Now given our understanding that a
180 kg’s of water, or a 160 kg’s of water plus chemical admixture, will have the same slump,
the slump remains the same. However, since we have reduced the water cement ratio, the
strength will increase. So what have we effectively achieved. We have achieved higher
strength, in the concrete mix. So this is one way of using a water reducer, so we have used the
water reducer, we have reduced the water content, and effectively what we have achieved;
however, is the increase in the compressive strength of the concrete.

Consider another example, here when we reduced the water content, or where we could
reduce the water content to 160, we did not want the strength to go up. We were happy with
this strength of 32 M P A. So we let, in order that this 32 M P A strength be preserved, or
since we did not want higher strength, what we need to do, is to keep the water cement ratio
at the same level of 0.5. And that can be done, if we keep the cement level at 320, because
our water cement ratio is 0.5, and the water content in this mix is 160. So what have we
effectively achieved, cement saving, so instead of using 360 kg’s of cement, we are now able
to get the same 32 M P A strength, with just 320 kg’s of cement. Of course, like in the
previous example, the slump is the same 8 centimeters, because we are still working with a
160 kg’s of the water, and a certain amount of chemical admixture. In the third form of using
water reducer would be, where we do not reduce the water content, we keep it at 180 and yet
we use a chemical admixture at certain dosage. We do not alter the cement content either, it is
still retained at 360 kg’s, what is the characteristics of this mix.

The water cement ratio is 0.5, and therefore the strength will still be 32 M P A, what will
happen to the slump a slump value, which was there at 8 at a level of 8 centimeters. When we
were using a 160 kg’s, with the chemical admixture, will go up, because now instead of 160,
we are using a 180 kg’s of water. A 160 kg’s plus chemical admixture, was giving me 8
centimeters of slump. Now if I push my water content up to 180 the slump will go up. So
effectively what I have achieved is plasticizing action; that is a concrete has become more
workable. So depending on how we use, whether we choose to save cement, whether we
choose to increase the strength, or we choose to plasticize the concrete mix. All these three
actions are possible, when we are using a water reducer, or a high range water reducer, or a
super plasticizer. Of course I must caution that, this is a very simplified picture, a simplistic
picture as a matter of fact, where an assertion is made, that the slump is depending only on
the water content. It is independent of the cement content, which is really is not, but it is an
illustrative example, to show how the huge of water reducers, can be an effective way to

127
adjust, modify your engineer the properties of concrete, whether it is the fresh concrete in
terms of slump, or its the harden concrete in terms of strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:09)

Now let us come to air entraining admixtures. These are used in air entrained concrete, we
sometimes call concrete as A E concrete, and non A E concrete, and our A E concrete is air
entrained concrete; that is that concrete where an admixture has been added, to consciously
entrain air into the system. Whereas a non air entrained concrete is one, where air may be still
present, but it is the entrapped air, and not entrained air, and it is there only unintentionally
and not entrained. Air entrainment is accompanied by increase in workability, and hence it
may be required, that the unit water content may have to be reduced for a certain workability.
What happens is, that when we entrain air in fresh concrete, air gets entrained in the form of
minute bubbles.

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(Refer Slide Time: 27:22)

Now these bubbles act as ball bearings, and improve the workability of concrete. And
therefore once we are using air entrainment, for some purpose, we may need to reduce the
water content of the concrete mix, in order to preserve the workability. So that’s something
which we must keep at the back of our mind, when proportioning concretes with air
entrainers. Air entrained concrete is recommended for use in environments with cyclic
freezing and thawing. We have mentioned earlier, that cyclic freezing and thawing means,
concrete structures built-in environments, where the temperatures vary over the year in a
range, that causes the concrete, or the water in concrete, to freeze and thaw. And once the
concrete, or the water in concrete freezes and thaws, that causes distress to the pore structure,
and it has been found that, having air entrained concrete in such environments, is one of the
options, that an engineer can use to increase the durability.

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(Refer Slide Time: 28:12)

(Refer Slide Time: 28:33)

This is what is being said, that if the air content in concrete, is in the range of one one and a
half two to 3 percent, then what is called the durability factor; that is how durable the
concrete is, in the freezing and thawing environment the durability factor is very small.
However if the concrete is in the range, having 4 to 6 percent of air, then the durability factor
is very high, and that is what is being said, when we state that, in the case where concrete is
exposed to cyclic freezing and thawing, having a certain amount of entrained air, is a very
good idea, to increase the durability of the concrete. These pictures here, show the presence
of air voids, within the harden concrete matrix. Please remember that, the blue color or the

130
red color and so on, are always just illustrative, and the air in the concrete does not have any
specific color. Apart from all these admixtures set regulators, water reducers, and air
entertainers, there are other chemical admixtures which we talked about, and these are also
added to concrete in the time of mixing, for other action; such as corrosion such as corrosion
inhibitors, like nitrites, and there is evidence that the presence of these ions in the concrete
matrix, helps in preventing or providing, additional resistance against reinforcement
corrosion and reinforce concrete.

Now before we close the discussion, on chemical admixtures, I would like to point out, that
the effectiveness, or the dosage of a chemical admixture, is related to the properties of
cement. Finer cements, coarser cements, cements with higher c 3 a, or a higher c 3 s, and so
on. They will need to be handled differently, when we are trying to adjust the dosage of a
chemical admixture for any purpose, whether it’s set regulation, or it is water reduction, or it
is air entrainment and so on. So one has to be very careful, when using chemical admixtures,
in terms of determining the compatibility, of the chemical admixtures with the cement which
is used. It’s a good practice that, whenever this lot of cement changes, or the batch of the
chemical admixtures changes, then simple tests should be carried out in the laboratory, to
ensure that the compatibility still exists, and a minor adjustment, in the dosage of the
chemical admixture, is appropriately made.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:20)

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(Refer Slide Time: 30:33)

Let us continue the discussion on admixtures in concrete, having completed chemical

admixtures, let us now come to mineral admixtures, especially in the role of replacing
cement. Now the motivation for using mineral admixtures in a concrete, could come from one
or more of the following. Industrial by product utilization, we have the steel industry, or the
thermal power plants, which are classically cited as examples, where we get large amounts of
blast furnace slag, or fly ash, which are used in concrete as mineral admixtures. We have the
copper industry, which gives copper slag, which again is a potential candidate for using
concrete as a mineral admixtures and so on. So there is this issue of industrial by product
utilization in concrete. There is environmental concern in terms of sustainable development,
which is related to industrial by product utilization, where we want that certain products from
the industry, or by products waste from the industry, which can be gainfully used, in the
concrete. Then we have ratio of economy, in cement consumption. Cement is the most
expensive of the concrete constituents, and even if you are able to say if a k g of cement in a
cubic metre, that translates to into a lot of savings, as far the project, as far as the carbon foot
print and so on is concerned.

The reduced heat of hydration, using cement is not only uneconomical, but it also gives us
large amount of heat of hydration, which is, which in certain cases becomes an issue, in case
of mass concrete and so on. And therefore we may like to reduce, the cement consumption in
concrete, not only from the point of view of economy, but also from the point of view of
handling, or controlling the heat of hydration. Durability issues, certain times if we use fly

132
ash, or we use blast furnace slag, or silica fume. We enhance the durability of the concrete
structure, because the pore structure of the concrete containing these admixtures, is finer, a
concrete is less permeable, and therefore more durable. So durability concerns, or
considerations often drive us to use, mineral admixtures, along with cement, in a concrete
mix. There may be strength requirements. At times it may be not possible, to achieve a
certain strength, or a certain level of strength, by using only the traditional ordinary portland
cements, at least in an economical manner or in a manner that the concrete still continues to
satisfy the specifications in terms of heat of hydration or the maximum temperature and so on
and therefore for even strength considerations we may need to use mineral admixtures.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:21)

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(Refer Slide Time: 33:47)

Now they are used in concrete, usually as a partial replacement of cement, or they are used in
addition to the cement. Now this is done in order to improve the properties of concrete
obviously, and can be in terms of compressive strength, liberation of heat of hydration, or any
other parameter that we choose to identify, specify, and monitor. Historically the use of
pozzolonic material is very well known, and these materials have no hydraulic properties of
their own, and they do not simply and they do not simply harden by adding water, rather they
react with calcium hydroxide, and yield products, similar to those formed during cement
hydration. So what these mineral admixtures do. They do not react with water; that is added
to the concrete. However the water and the cement, when they react they form large amounts
of calcium hydroxide, and this calcium hydroxide is what ,the mineral admixtures react with,
to give hydration products, or products of that reaction, or similar to the products formed on
account of normal cement hydration.

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(Refer Slide Time: 34:45)

In recent years, the following have emerged as the primary mineral admixtures used in
concrete, as far as replacement of cement is concerned, ground granulated blast furnace slag,
fly ash, and silica fume. Please note that, this is not all kinds of ash that we get from the
thermal power plants. The thermal power plants produce primarily two kinds of ash; one is
pond ash, and the other is fly ash. Pond ash does not find too much of use in concrete, even
though there is effort being made, to use pond ash as well, at least as a concrete material or as
a constituent of concrete, even if not considering it as a part of cement. But fly ash is the one
that has, found wide spread use, as far as the mineral admixture is concerned, and then there
is silica fume of course. Other materials such as metakaoline, a rice husk ash, may also be
used as mineral admixtures, provided the satisfied, whatever is the requirement that, a client
or a code may choose to impose, on the use of mineral admixtures and concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 36:02)

Now as far as the dosage of these mineral admixtures has concerned, it obviously depends on
the efficiency of the mineral admixture, now what is the inefficiency of a mineral admixture.
It basically is the ability of the admixture or that material, to replace cement. If to replace a k
g of cement, we require more material, then the efficiency is lower. If lesser amount of
material can be used, to replace the k g of cement, it is more efficient. The dosage of a
mineral admixture obviously depends on the efficiency of the mineral admixture, now what is
the efficiency of a mineral admixture. It is the ability of a mineral admixture, to replace
cement. If there are two mineral admixtures a and b, such that in order to replace a k g of
cement, less of a is required. Then a is more efficient as a mineral admixture than b. Of
course the second part of it is the desired result, what do we expect from the concrete, and
that will determine what the dosage of the mineral admixture is, or how much of the mineral
admixture is required to be used, in a cubic meter of concrete. The following is a general
range, in which the mineral admixtures are added to concrete, as far as fly ash slag in silica
fume are concerned. Now slag is used to the extent of 30 to 70 percent by weight of cement,
under replacement. Similarly fly ash is used up to 10 to 30 percent by weight of cement,
again as replacement, and silica fume is usually added, in a range of 5 to 15 percent by
weight of cement, in the mode of addition.

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(Refer Slide Time: 37:51)

Now let me just give an example of what replacement and addition means. If we consider a
base concrete mix, which has say 350 kg’s of cement per cubic meter, without any mineral
admixture. Now if there is mix 2, where we have 300 kg’s of cement, and 80 kg’s of the
mineral admixture, what has happened effectively is that, 50 kg’s of cement has been
replaced by, 80 kg’s of the mineral admixture. In another case, if we use the same amount of
cement ;that is 350 kg’s, but we use 80 kg’s of mineral admixture, in addition to the 350 kg’s
of cement. Then this concrete mix has a mineral admixture, in addition to the cement content,
or in addition to the cement. Whereas in this case, the mineral admixture is in partial
replacement of cement. So if we have an example like this, where 80 kg’s of mineral
admixture has replaced 50 kg’s of cement, then we can talk, we can we can try to define the
efficiency one admixture, versus another admixture. As stated in the previous slides, fly ash
and slag are typically used, in replacement, or partial replacement of cement. Whereas silica
fume is often used in, addition to the cement that is there in the concrete mix.

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(Refer Slide Time: 39:36)

Another example that’s given here, is a 50 replace. Another example given in this slide here
says, a 50 percent replacement by slag in a concrete mix containing 400 kg’s of cubic meter
of cement, will thus mean that the mix now has 200 kg’s of cement, and 200 kg’s of slag.
Similarly use of 5 percent additional silica in a similar mix would mean that, the mix contains
20 kg’s per cubic meter of silica fume, in addition to the 400 kg’s of cement per cubic meter
of that concrete. Of course, we have to keep in mind that, what is the property, that’s going to
change. For example in this case, if the replacement given here is a one to one replacement;
that is 200 kg’s of cement has been replaced by 200 kg’s of slag, without any change in the
properties of concrete, whether it is fresh concrete or harden concrete. Then the efficiency of
the slag is one; that is it has replaced unit to unit k g to k g of the cement. It may not usually
happen, we may need to use a little more of the mineral admixture, whether it is slag or it is
fly ash or whatever it is, to replace a k g of cement, and that is what we will see later is the
idea of the efficiency of a mineral admixture.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:12)

Of course when I say that 5 to 15 percent of silica fume can be used, or 10 to 30 percent of
fly ash can be used, or 30 to 70 percent of slag can be used; that is just the normal figures. A
specialist literature also suggest usage of mineral admixtures, beyond these ranges. For
example there is a lot of published material on high volume fly ash, in applications such as
roads, where the replacement levels for fly ash in concrete, that is much higher and has been
actually used, but these are something’s which we will not talk about, in this discussion in
our. But those applications which are specialized in nature are not, within the view of our
discussion in this, set of lectures.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:05)

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Now coming to the efficiency once again, depending on the chemical composition of the
mineral admixture. Its reactivity with calcium hydroxide will be different, and thus the
potential to form the required calcium silicate hydrate gel would vary. See how does a
mineral admixture work. The mineral admixture works through reacting with calcium
hydroxide, and if the mineral admixture is such, that it is able to react very effectively with
calcium hydroxide, produce the same amount of calcium silicate hydrates or hydration
products, then it is a very efficient mineral admixture. Whereas in certain cases, for chemical
composition, for any other reason, the mineral admixture may not be a very effective
admixture, and therefore its efficiency will be lower.

The efficiency of a mineral admixture may therefore be defined in terms of, its ability to
replace cement in a concrete mix. As I have said earlier, that if 200 kg’s of an admixture is
required to achieve the strength, and in this example we are using strength as the parameter,
to achieve the strength obtained by 100 kg’s of cement, then it’s efficiency is 50 percent,
because 100 kg of cement has been replaced by 200 kg’s of mineral admixture, or 200 kg’s of
the mineral admixture were required to be used, in order to get the same output, which we
were getting with 100 kg’s of cement, and therefore the efficiency of that mineral admixture
is 50 percent. In other words if you are given the mineral admixtures efficiency, then we
know how much of that mineral admixture we should be using in a concrete mix, in order that
the quality of concrete, or the desired parameter that we have; that is not compromised, by
using the mineral admixture.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:05)

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(Refer Slide Time: 44:51)

In other words, the strength of the following two concrete mixes should be the same, 350 k g
per cubic meter of cement, or 300 kg’s of cement with 100 kg’s of mineral admixture, having
an efficiency of 50 percent. These two will produce identical strengths. If we have strength as
the parameter, and we know that the mineral admixture that we are using, has an efficiency of
50 percent. In another example when we have talked about 50 kg’s of cement being replaced
by 80 kg’s of the mineral admixture, there the efficiency can be taken to be 50 upon 80,
which is 62 percent. Another implication of using mineral admixtures in concrete, is the
increase in the powder content of concrete. This of course assumes, that the efficiency of the
mineral admixture, is less than 100 percent, and therefore to replace any amount of cement,
more of the mineral admixture is required.

This causes an increase in the paste or the mortar content of the concrete. If for example, the
specific gravity of cement, and the mineral admixture, are known to be 3.12 and 2.2, and the
efficiency of the mineral admixture, is known to be 60 percent. Then if we have a concrete
mix here, which has water content of 175, a water cement ratio of 50 percent, and therefore
you use 350 kg’s of cement. So in another mix, if we want to go get the same level, we will
need a 175 five kg’s of water, with 300 kg’s of cement but 80 kg’s of mineral admixtures,
instead of the 50 kg’s. Now this 50 kg’s of cement, is being replaced by 80 kg’s of the
mineral admixture. Now, since the mineral admixture is lighter, than the cement, then the
volume is more. The volume is any case more, because 50 kg’s is becoming 80 kg’s on
account of the efficiency, and then the volume is further increasing, because the densities are

141
lower. So what is effectively happening is, that if we do a calculation, we will find that the
powder content in the concrete mix, is a 112 liters, in the first case. And in the second case, it
has gone to 132 liters. The paste content therefore, which is the sum of the powder content;
that is water, and the powder, is 287.18 in one case, and in the other case it is 375.2. So we
have added more powder, and therefore we have caused the paste content to increase.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:05)

Now, let us go back to a very old slide, which we saw in the first lecture. Where we had
defined cement and water to be paste, paste and sand to be mortar, and mortar and coarse
aggregate to be concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:34)

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(Refer Slide Time: 48:22)

And we had asked a question as to what is the need to change, or reiterate those definitions,
in the context of modern day concrete engineering. And now we have the answer, that it is
not only the cement content, which constitutes or provides the powder, as far as the concrete
mix is concerned. In addition to cement, there could be mineral admixtures, whether they
take part in the hydration reaction or not. Those powders, they definitely would constitute, or
play a role, similar to that of cement paste, as far as the properties of fresh concrete are
concerned, and therefore we need to keep this in back, and we must keep this aspect at the
back of our mind, when we analyze modern concrete mixes, or we design modern concrete
mixes for specific applications. And let us straight away example is already shown here. We
have seen this picture before, and we talk in terms of a self consolidating concrete.

It depends on these fines, whether they are part of the fine aggregate, or they could be part of
the cement, or they could be, in addition to the cement. So basically the paste content, is
getting added. So we have seen this slide earlier, which is a pictorial representation, of the
volumetric of a normal mix, or a regular concrete mix, and a special purpose concrete mix.
The role of these fines, is what has to be understood in terms of the properties in the fresh
concrete. These fines can be, considered a part of the fine aggregate, depending on what the
nature of the fines is, or as far as mineral admixtures are concerned, they could be considered
a part of cement plus mineral admixtures, is what constitutes the paste content, which is this
much.

143
(Refer Slide Time: 47:34)

(Refer Slide Time: 50:00)

144
(Refer Slide Time: 50:48)

So instead of 25 percent paste in the normal conditions, the amount of paste could go slightly
higher, as we have seen for example in this case, instead of 287 liters per cubic meter is about
28 percent, it goes to about 30 percent or 32 percent. So this change of 2 percent 3 percent is
not insignificant, and must be kept in mind when we are designing concrete mixes. Now let
us come to the basic mechanism of mineral admixture action. normally tri calcium silicate,
and the di calcium silicates, they react with water to form C S H, which is the calcium silicate
hydrate, which is the normal or the most common hydration product, and a lot of calcium
hydroxide. These two are the direct products of the hydration reaction, and you have seen
earlier, that the tri calcium silicate, and the di calcium silicates are the bulk, of the ordinary
portland cement, and therefore these are the most common, and most voluminous kind of
reaction products. As far as the classic pozzolonic reaction is concerned, the silica which is S
i O 2 reacts with the calcium hydroxide, and forms the same C S H; that is the calcium
silicate hydrate, and we get the mineral admixtures, reacting with the calcium hydroxide, to
form the C S H, even though this silica itself is not hydraulic. It does not react with the water,
and needs the calcium hydroxide, to form the binding C S H.

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(Refer Slide Time: 51:25)

In other words the C S H formed in pozzolonic reactions, is really a two phase reaction in the
first phase. We have the formation of calcium hydroxide from the hydration of cement. And
in the second phase, we have the formation of C S H from this calcium hydroxide and the
silica. It thus stands to reason, to assert that in such cases, the hydration products could be,
richer in the C S H phase, and poorer in the amount of calcium hydroxide finally remaining,
because part of this calcium hydroxide has been used, in the pozzolonic reaction. So whereas
we have more C S H sitting in the concrete mix, we might have lesser amount of calcium
hydroxide. And this has some implications, in concrete engineering, in certain applications,
as the literature suggests.

146
(Refer Slide Time: 52:24)

Now, how are mineral admixtures added to the concrete mix. There are basically two options
that we have; one is during the manufacture of the cement, and that happens at the cement
plant, and there, and what do we get, blended cements; that is this mineral admixture is added
to the cement at the cement plant, and the cement is not O P C, what the product of the
cement plant now, is not ordinary Portland cement, it is blended cement, because the mineral
admixture has already been added, to the O P C. The other option of course, is to add the
mineral admixture, during the mixing of the concrete, at the concrete plant, or at the site of
mixing. in this case, the cement used is O P C, and the mineral admixture is added, in an
appropriate dosage in the plant.

So in this case, the cement manufacturer, takes responsibility for the addition of mineral
admixtures, and ensures and assures the user, that the blended cement meet certain
specifications and so on, and very often, the amount or the exact amount at least, of the
mineral admixture, used is not known. What we know, is the performance of the blended
cement, that yes it has a certain initial setting time, or certain final setting time, it has certain
strength development characteristics. Though it is not o p c alone, it is a pozzolonic or a
blended cement. In the later case, where the mineral admixture is added to the concrete at the
batching plant. The batching plant or the concrete manufacture, takes responsibility to make
sure that, a concrete produced has the required properties, in terms of strength, workability
and so on, and must use only the right amount of mineral admixtures.

147
(Refer Slide Time: 54:35)

We will talk about some of these concepts once again, when we are proportioning, special
concrete mixes at another time. With this we come to an end of the discussion today, where
we have talked about, chemical admixtures added to concrete, and the mineral admixtures
added to concrete, also eluded to the manufacture of blended cements, where the mineral
admixtures are added to the, cement at the time of cement manufacture, at the cement plant.

(Refer Slide Time: 55:14)

Now before we close, as usual we will have some questions. How do the properties of cement
affect the effectiveness of chemical admixtures. I would like you to make a list of the other
chemical admixtures; that is we talked about just one; that is the corrosion inhibitors, there

148
are several others, and if you see the literature, you will find other chemical admixtures
which are used, which have reported history, where these admixtures have been used for
special purposes in concrete construction. I would like you to prepare a note, on how the
chemical admixtures actually act. We would not get involved with the mechanism of action
of, either the set regulator, or a water reducer or the air entrainer, but it’s an interesting area,
which you would like to see, and see how cement chemists actually work, or how chemist,
how chemistry, and cement technology comes together in this very interesting area. I would
like you to make a list of commercially available chemical admixtures, in a region.

There are different chemical admixtures, there are different chemicals which are used as
chemical admixtures, in different parts of the world, and that will be an education, for
anybody who tries to understand this a little more. I would like you to identify, some major
concrete construction projects in the world, where chemical and mineral admixtures have
been used, and I would like you to critically comment, on the suggested pozzolonic reaction,
and the definition of the efficiency of mineral admixtures that we have talked about.
Specifically please try to see, how this reaction is different, in the case of blast furnace slag,
or silica fume, or fly ash, in terms of their reaction with calcium hydroxide, and what is the
definition of efficiency which is given. We defined efficiency in terms of, effectiveness of a
effectiveness of a mineral admixture to replace the cement, how does it work for the different
mineral admixtures, and with that, we come to a close of the discussion today.

Thank you

149
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 5
Hydration of cement

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

And welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology. In this series we
have been talking about: fundamentals, proportioning, stages in concrete construction,
special concretes, mechanism of retail ration, reinforcement and maintenance.

150
(Refer Slide Time: 00:39)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:42)

Now continuing with the discussion on the fundamentals which is the first part of the
discussion, we have been talking about constituents of concrete and we know that
concrete comprises of coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, ordinary Portland cement and
water. We are not talking of mineral and chemical add mixtures which have become and
inherent integral part of the concrete construction, what we will talk about that later. As
far as the first round is concern, we will talk of absolutely normal concrete comprising of
these four elements.

151
(Refer Slide Time: 01:16)

Now, coming to the discussion on cement which is the ordinary Portland cement, we
must remember that cement is the only reactive component in concrete and the hydration
products which are formed when cement reacts with water that provides the binder for
the aggregates. Therefore, the properties of concrete are determined to a large extent
from the properties of cement and binding hydration products. Also cement is the most
expensive of the components and efforts need to be made to minimize the cement
contained in the concrete mix. Codes often prescribe a minimum and a maximum content
of cement in a concrete mix. The minimum is prescribed from the point of few of
durability and so on, whereas the maximum is sometime prescribed from considerations
of heat of hydration and so on as we shall see sometime later.

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(Refer Slide Time: 02:13)

Now coming to order Portland cement, we already talked about some of these things
manufactured, constituents, physical and chemical properties and hydration. Today we
largely concentrate on the properties of OPC and the hydration reaction that are
important in our understanding of the properties of the cement paste as well as the
properties of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:40)

Now, as far as the these three things are concerned we already talked about that and we
know that manufacture of OPC essentially involves grinding of constituent materials,

153
mixing them, heating the mixed in a kiln to a temperature of about fourteen 1450 to 1500
degree centigrade, cooling this fused mass to produce what is called ‘clinker’ and then
grinding the clinker to a very fine powder involvements and that is how we get ordinary
Portland cement. During the grinding, gypsum or plaster of Paris to the extent for about 3
percent is added to control and regulate the iteration of the cement and that is the role of
gypsum.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:25)

In the absence of gypsum, the tricalcium aluminate C 3 A which is one of the principle
constituents of the cement reacts too rapidly with water and the hydration products
formed render the cement on workable and thus to regulate the setting process gypsum is
added to the clinker at the time is grinding. We shall remember that in order to have
reasonable construction using concrete, the cement should be such that it allows the
concrete to remain workable for at least some time so that the concrete can be
transported, placed, vibrated and transportations sometimes takes a lot of time it could be
30 minutes, 40 minutes, may be 1 hour if we are using ready mix concrete.

Even if you are using the concrete at site, even then it might take about 15 minutes or 10
minutes to transport the concrete from the actual mixing sites to the place where it has to
be placed or the structure which is being cast. Therefore, concrete must remain workable
during that time. Having said that after that it should hearten and the concrete cannot be
allowed to remain workable for a two longer period of time and therefore, there has to be

154
a lower bound on the initial setting time of cement and an upper bound on the final
setting time of cement. And that is the window in which we play and once we have the
cement which conforms to regulations we are ready to use it in concrete constructions.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:17)

Now, coming to the clinker we have seen this photograph before. Portland cement as we
said is manufactured by heating a mixture of limestone and clay in a kiln to 14 feet in a
kiln to a temperature of 1400 to 1600 degree centigrade where the raw ingredients
chemically interact to form new phases during clinkering and the product being called
clinker. And this clinker emerges as marbles of golf sized lumps as shown here and that
must be finding the ground to produce the OPC. So, this we can see here is a particle of
clinker and we if we sit along this kiln which is given at the bottom we can see that this
particle or this piece this about 2 and a half centimeters in diameter or having a
dimension of about 2, 2 and half centimeters.

155
(Refer Slide Time: 06:13)

Now, if we look at chemical composition of the clinker it contains C 3 S that is the tri-
calcium silicate also called Alite which are about 20 micro meters to 50 micro meters
and Blite which is di-calcium silicate C 2 S. C 3 A and C 4 A F, which are aluminate and
the ferrite phases in the clinker and they are there in the interstitial phase. Whereas, the C
3 A,C 2 A which constitutes about 70 to 90 percent of the clinker. We must also
remember that C 3 S, if you look at it in a microscope is sufficient magnification you
will find that it is angularly shape, whereas, C 2 S is rounded. Recall that in cement
chemistry C is calcium oxide, A is aluminum oxide, F is a F e 2 O 3 and S is S i O 3. So,
then we say C 2 S, C 3 S we are talking of complexes which are formed due to the fusion
of calcium oxide a silicon oxide and so on.

156
(Refer Slide Time: 07:35)

Now, continuing with the discussion on the constituents. We have seen that since the raw
material is essentially oxides that are of calcium, silicon, aluminum and iron. The
product that is OPC is also made up of these oxides typically the oxide composition for
the composition of OPC in terms of the oxides is shown here. These we should
remember are very stable compounds and therefore, do not break when they are
subjected to heat and grinding and so on. Whereas, products like calcium carbonate they
get decomposed to give you S i, to give calcium oxide and carbon dioxide and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:22)

157
Now, if you look closely at these this composition. There is a alkali content of the
cement which is basically rising out of the presence of sodium oxide and potassium
oxide which are impurities that contribute to the alkali content, it is common to express
the alkalinity of the cement as equivalent N a 2 O given by N a 2 O content and 0.658 the
K 2 O content. I am leaving as an assignment for you to determine what is the basis of
this factor of 0.658? Please try to do some simple arithmetic and I am sure you get the
answer.

And based on this equivalent N a 2 O that we have in the cement, the cements can be
classified as low alkali cements or otherwise as specification can always say that if the N
a 2 O equivalent of cement is more than 1 percent the cement will be classified as high
alkali cement. If it is less than 0.3 percent it will be low alkali cement. These numbers
are arbitrary and professionally decided by engineers and their bodies which are
responsible for writing the code then specifications for cement concrete and construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:49)

Now what is the importance of the alkali content, the properties especially important
when we are trying to study the problem of alkali-aggregate reaction? Though usually
the aggregates in concrete are inert and do not react chemically with the pore solution.
There are some exceptions, when the presence of certain minerals in the aggregates
renders them reactive. That is they react with the pore solution, which may have sodium
and potassium ions and of course hydroxide ions and this reaction leaves to pre matured

158
detritions of the concrete and that something which we study later when we talk of alkali
aggregate reactions. And in these cases when the aggregate that we use is reactive then
the use of low alkali cements is one of the remedies that can be considered when the use
of such aggregates cannot be avoided. Please remember that in concrete construction or
civil engineering construction in general we are often forced to use locally available
material. If we are constructing a dam or a bridge at a particular location, it becomes
economically unviable that material such as aggregate which is required in the quantities
which are several hundreds of tons to be transported from a very faraway place.

So, we have to make to with using the aggregate which is locally available, may be
available within 50 kilometers, or may be 70 kilometers or 80 kilometers and so on. But,
it will be very difficult, but it is an engineering decision which is often not taken to reject
all the aggregate which is locally available unless the situation is so bad that it cannot be
really avoided. Under these conditions when we have to use the aggregate which is
locally available, which has been classified as potentially reactive then, we have no other
choice but to resort to mean such as the use of low alkali cement and so on to make sure
that even though alkali aggregate reaction may occur extent of the reaction or the extent
of the duration is still under control. So, it is largely engineering decision when we do
this kind of things.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:35)

159
(Refer Slide Time: 12:43)

Now, going back to this chart if we look at the other part that is the oxide composition
which is given other than the alkali metals. Then, we should remember that these oxides
do not occur as oxides in the clinker they occur as these four complexes and we have
seen how these complexes or the amounts of these complexes are determined using the
brogue equations which are empirically equations and help us estimate the quantities of
C 3 S, C 2 S, C 3 S, C 4 A F on the basis of the oxide composition of the cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:18)

160
We also know that during the fusion process the oxides get organized differently and the
cement can be viewed as the solid solution made up of these complexes and this here
gives us the rough breakup of the chemical constitution of cement in terms of the 4
principle complexes that we have.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:41)

It is not easily possible to determine the exact percentage of C 3 A and so on. Because
the moment we try to do any chemical analysis these complexes, disintegrate or breakup
and what we can only determine is the oxide composition. And therefore, use of brogue’s
equations etcetera helps us only gives an estimate of the actual amount of C 3 A and
other complexes which represent in a cement and as far as most civil engineering
application are concerned that is quite sufficient.

161
(Refer Slide Time: 14:19)

Now, continuing our discussion with the properties, these are some of the properties that
we can attribute we need to study as far as physical properties which is specific gravity
and fineness, consistency, setting time, initial and final, strength development, early
strength, 28 days strength, ultimate strength, soundness, ignition loss and alkali contents.

These are some of the properties that are important, what we must we remember is that
these properties are often inter-related. The fineness of cement is related to the
consistency, the fineness of cement is also related to the strength development and so on.
So, when we are looking at the properties of cement, then we should remember to also
look at a comprehensive picture, where we try to relate one property verses the other and
be careful as to whatever is specification are? What are the kinds of properties that we
really require in a particular case? As I said just now,

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(Refer Slide Time: 15:32)

There is a clear link between the processes of iteration heat liberation and strength
development. For example, C 3 A tri-calcium aluminate hydrates most rapidly and
liberates the maximum amount heat and it contributes to the early stiffening of the
cement. Similarly, C 2 S the hydration is the lowest and produces least heat and
contributes to the ultimate strength of cement. In principle what really happens is the
following: When water is added to cement hydration starts in immediately and there are
different words that we associate with this process setting, stiffening, strength
development and so on.

These basically referred to the different amounts of work ability that the cement paste
still has. Because at the end of it after the water has been added and the reaction starts
and the hydration starts, gradually cement paste becomes stiffer and it is a matter of time
when this stiffness translates into strength development. So, it is really that kind of test
that we use to determine or estimate extent of this hydration reaction that helps us figure
out the setting time, the stiffening time or the initial and the final setting time and what is
the strength development and all that. Depending on a particular application we try to
have a cement which has a certain characteristic. So, this is something which we must
keep at the back of our mind. Cement that is stiffening very rapidly will also have early
strength development.

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And in order that the cement stiffen very rapidly the chemical composition should be
such that hydration products are formed early and then we must try to see that those
complexes which react faster than the others they are present in the right amount as far as
the cement is concerned. Similarly, if we want the cement to not set very early, for
example, there is a long lead time we do not want to have a construction joined and all
that then we must try to control those complexes which hydrate very early which give us
early stiffness. So, if we control those complexes then will have a cement, which is
having a longer initial setting time.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:08)

So, with this back ground let us continue with our discussion and we will try to study the
problem and we will try to study the relationship between hydration, liberation of heat
and development of strength and we in fact use this relationships in developing the
special cements or different cements. Low heat of hydration cements we will have a
lower C 3 A content, rapid hardening cements may have a C 3 A content, that is how we
kind of classifies cements and we need to have a different specifications on the chemical
composition of this cements.

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(Refer Slide Time: 18:44)

And as far as the factors effecting the OPC properties is concerned, the cement can be
characterized in terms of standard consistency, initially and final setting times, strength
development, heat liberation, soundness and ignition loss. Some of these things will talk
about today in data detail.

And these properties are all determinant some extent by the finesse which is the extent to
which the cement is been ground and the chemical composition which is the relative
amounts of the 4 solid complexes. I must retreat here, that the chemical composition of
the clinker and the chemical composition of the cement is basically the same, there is no
change in the chemical composition during the grinding process except for the addition
of gypsum which is a physical process and it comes into play only as far as hydration is
concerned or regulating the hydration processes is concerned. As far as the cement is
concerned, chemically the clinker and the cement is more or less the same and that is
why we have making a statement here that the chemical properties of cement in terms of
chemical composition of these compounds and the fineness which is an independent
increment, which are independent property, they really determine the properties of a
cement.

For the same clinker, it can be ground to different levels of fineness and it will have
different properties but, that is because it has different fineness. For the same fineness of
course, you can have different clinkers and they will have different chemical

165
compositions and therefore, the properties of the cement can be different. So, we must
remember that the properties that of cement in terms standard consistency, initial and
final setting time and so on, they are all determine by two basic parameters. One is the
fineness and the second is the chemical composition.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:54)

Now, let us try to look at the process of hydration of cement a little more closely. The
process of reaction of water with different constituent complexes of cement is what is
called hydration. The process is exothermic in nature and involves evaluation and
liberation of heat. The process starts as soon as water comes in contact with the cement
and that is in the mixer itself and continues for several weeks. This is the basis of all our
understanding and the discussion that we will have as far as the properties of cement and
to that extent even the concrete as we see later on in this series of lectures.

Cement comprises of the different complexes and once water is added to the cement all
these complexes more or less simultaneously start the reaction process. Depending on
how fast or how slow the reaction of individual complexes is, the cement per say has
different rates of reaction. The cement chemists who work with different solid
complexes, they artificial manufactured the different complexes and study there
hydration characteristics, in terms of the rate of hydration, amount of heat liberated and
the kind of hydration product that are formed and so on. And the performance or the
reaction of a cement is essentially the sum total of the reactions of all this complexes. So,

166
this picture we must keep at the back of our mind when we study the hydration of cement
and the effect of that hydration on the properties or the changing properties of the cement
placed or concrete on a count of that hydration process.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:14)

Now, as far as hydration of the Portland cement is concerned this is a simplified view of
the actual reactions which are taking place. C 2 S and C 3 S they react with water to form
C S H which is calcium silicate hydrate gel and a lot of calcium hydroxide. So, these are
basically the hydration products formed on a counter the hydration of tri-calcium di-
calcium silicates. As far as C 3 A and C 4 A F are concerned they react with the water
and the gypsum regulates that reaction and again we get ettringite monosulfate and so on
which again become a feeder here the calcium the tri-calcium aluminate reacts with the
ettringite to give us hydration products.

Now, once we understand these reaction is we know that as far as the hydration process
is concerned C 3 S, C 2 S, C 3 A and C 4 A F they all react with water to give lots of
hydration products and chemists have studied this process in lot more detail then civil
engineers need to really know about to give us ettringite monosulfate, lot of calcium
silicate hydrate gel and calcium hydroxide. As far as civil engineers are concerned most
of the time at least as far as the discussion in this set of this lectures is concerned we are
concerned only with the formation of calcium silicate hydrate and calcium hydroxide in
large amounts. We should remember that the C 2 S and C 3 S actually constitute the bulk

167
of the cement as far as the chemical constitution concerned and therefore, C S H and C H
calcium hydroxide is cement chemistry is also called C H. Because C is the calcium
oxide and H is H 2 O and that is water. So, calcium hydroxide is often called C H when
we trying to write reactions in the language that cement chemists use. So, we are really
interested or we are concerned about the formation of C S H and calcium hydroxide in
the hydration process. The formations of ettringite monosulfate and so on these are
intermediate products which also a formed but, to a lesser extent even though there
importance cannot be minimized or cannot be undermined simply because the volumes
of this product is very small.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:54)

This is a microscopic model of the hydration of cement, if we look at cement particles

here which is before the hydration we can assume that the cement particles as spherical
and are having different particles sizes. We should remember that the cement particles
are actually not is spherical at all there actually highly angular but, from the point of
view of analysis simulation of modeling there is no harm in assuming that cement is
made up of spherical particles of different sizes. Now, once this cement particles are
coming in contact with what is they come in contact with water what we have is
hydration process starting.

Now, one way of looking at this hydration process is the formation of these hydrates here
around all the cement particles and the hydration products are getting inter point between

168
different particles of cement and there is a lot of un-hydrated cement which is still
waiting to be hydrated as more and more hydration takes place and this is precisely why
cement hydration takes long time because, only over a period of time does water which
is sitting here and the cement which is sitting here they gradually interact, react and more
and more of these hydration products are formed and the un-hydrated part of the cement
strinks giving more and more hydration products. And this process once we understand
we have a perfect understanding or good enough understanding to go forward and study
more about the properties of the cement paste and concrete and how it changes as more
and more hydration takes place. In this picture, we are talking of hydration of the cement
of the cement particle we must keep at the back of our mind that each of these cement
particles actually consists of different complexes C 2 S, C 3 S, C 4 A F and so on and
once this cement particles comes in contact with the water each of this phases they start
the own reactions and when we are talking of the un-hydrated cement particle that means
that part of C 3 S is un-hydrated part of C 2 S un-hydrated part of C 3 S is un-hydrated
and so on.

The extent of the availability of these un-hydrated solid complexes depends on how these
individual solid complexes react, what is there individual reads of reaction as far as water
is concerned. We must also keep at the back of a mind that as more and more hydration
takes place the water molecule have to go through this hydration products to reach the
un-hydrated layer of cement. Sooner or later therefore, we may have a situation that the
hydration actually stops. Now, what are the conditions under which the hydration
actually stops? There are 3 conditions one is that all the water we have around cement is
exhausted whether or not there is un-hydrated cement the there is exhaustion of water is
finished. The second situation arises when all the cement has been hydrated that is there
is no un-hydrated cement even if there is some water around there is no un-hydrated
cement and therefore, hydration has stopped. There is a third situation where the
products of hydration which have been formed and deposited around the cement particles
they becomes so dense that they do not allow the passage of water from the outside to
reach the pore cement which is un-hydrated.

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(Refer Slide Time: 30:36)

If we look at this original cement particle with water sitting outside and after certain
degree of hydration this is the un-hydrated cement pore. If the density and the amount of
these hydration products become such that water molecules find it impossible to
penetrate these hydration products and reach the surface here then the hydration is
essentially stops. Even though un-hydrated cement is available, water is available but, no
further hydration can takes place simply because the hydration products become a barrier
to the movement of water through the hydration products and they are prevented from
reaching the cement surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:31)

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This here is simplified model for hydration of cement for those of few who are
mathematically inclined. If there is a liquid outside and solid and that is what is the
cement water interface looking like. If this x was very small and that indeed is very small
we can assume that the liquid is actually diffusing into the solid and we can assume in
that case the reaction rate is proportional to the concentration gradient of the liquid and
therefore, inversely proportional to the thickness of this layer through which the liquid
has to diffuse. And if you are able to write this equation which is the rate of change of
this layer the d x of upon d t being equal to k times C upon x if we solve this we get in
equation up to which is very simple which is something like this.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:30)

Now, if we are able do some more mathematics of that then we will get these kind of
reactions where we can if from which we can study the rate of reaction that is the rate
which the spherical particle is dissolving under the process of hydration its starts with
initial radius of R and then as time goes on more and more of this X is formed and the R
actually reduces. So, this is something which we can do if we doing a mathematical
analysis or a simulation or modeling of the hydration process.

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(Refer Slide Time: 33:17)

These again are reactions which we have already studies we will skip that except that I
should just point out extends of C-S-H and C H which are formed in all this reactions.
There other hydration products like those which are formed when calcium aluminates the
tri-calcium aluminate and the tetra calcium aluminoferrites when they react they give this
tri-calcium aluminate hydration products.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:42)

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And now we will take a closer look at the hydration of each of these constituent
minerals. As we said cement comprises of these 4 principles solid complexes and now
we will take a closer look at the hydration of each of these solids.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:00)

As far as 3 S concerned we should remember that it constitute about 10 percent of

cement, it is the phase the reacts the fastest and is responsible for the initial setting of
cement, gypsum is added in fact to the cement essentially control this reaction. And
evolution involved as far as C 3 A hydration is concerned is to the extent about 1350
joules per gram.

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(Refer Slide Time: 34:27)

And this is how tri-calcium aluminates they react that is after the time of mixing, what is
the degree of hydration? How it moves? There is something which you will see here
which is water, gypsum, calcium hydroxide which are formed the calcium hydroxide
gypsum which is formed and what is written here at the bottom if you read it carefully it
says the hydration of the tri-calcium aluminates is very rapid and it becomes hard
quickly, becomes impossible to cast and that is what we need to control if we want to
take the concrete some distance which may take some time. And the case of calcium
hydroxide which is the hydration products form C 3 S and C 2 S which are also reacting
at the same time, the reaction of C 3 A becomes slower. So, we are actually talking of a
situation where the hydration of C 3 A is tempered by the presence of gypsum which
throws in lot of sulphates into the solution.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:32)

Coming to C 4 A F that also constituents about 10 percent of the cement depending upon
the quantity of iron in the clay as an impurity its responsible for the gray colour cement
the presence of gypsum also effects the hydration of this phase and this contributes little
to the long term strength and set slowly liberating about 420 joules per gram.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:56)

And this is the picture here which is the hydration of C 3 A and C 4 A F together. And
the hydration of C 3 A is control by the formation of ettringite and that is again promoted

175
after about the day of hydration. The hydration of C 4 A F is essentially a relatively slow
reaction.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:16)

As far as the hydration of C 2 S is concerned it is an important thing that we must

understand because it constitutes about 15 to 35 percent of the cement, it hydrates slowly
and is responsible for the ultimate strength in cement. The hydration of C 2 S liberates
only about 2 hundred 60 joules per gram of heat. C 2 S we must remember contributes to
the ultimate strength of the cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:46)

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And this is the hydration of C 3 S and C 2 S together and the ratio of this C 2 S and C 3 S
that can be vary depending on a manufacturing process the kind of raw materials that we
use. The hydration of C 3 S in fact is promoted by the coexistence of C 2 S and the
reaction of C 2 S is promoted by C 3 S and the earlier stages and is delayed by C 3 S in
the long term. So, it is a very complex process and civil engineers are increasingly being
called upon to understand the hydration process as we try to engineer the cements, we try
to develop new cements where, we want ultimate strengths which may be not necessarily
achieved at 28 days. That something which we will discuss some other lecture when we
are probably talking of high strength concrete and so on. A lot of civil engineering
structures are not subjected to high levels of float in the initial stages, may be in the first
6 months may be 1 year. And therefore, the quality control as far as these structures
concerned can easily be done at 91 day strength or a 6 month strength, for that we need
to have or cements that continue to hydrate much longer than normal cements where the
hydration could be mostly over with the lets say about 2 months or 3 months. Of course,
what also it goes with it is that the final acceptance of such concrete is delayed to the
extent of 6 months may be 3 months and that is the risk that professionals take when we
are talking of special concrete special cements and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:41)

So, now as far as the reaction of Alite is concerned we are talking of C 3 S its exactly the
same model that we are talked about earlier where we are taking alite be as spherical

177
particle un-hydrated C 3 S and that is reacting initially through the formation of
hydration products and water.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:00)

And Alite gives us hydrate A, which gives us the second reaction which is C-S-H and
calcium hydroxide, the reaction C is the final stage reaction where C 3 S also at the end
of it gives us C-S-H and calcium hydroxide. And all though Portland cement is
composed of many minerals compounds this module assumes that the Portland cement
comprises only of C 3 S. Those are simplifications which we make when we carry out
simulations and model studies where instead of saying that the same cement particle has
different extents or his made up of different amounts of C 2 S, C 3 S and so on. We can
make an assumption and say that 12 cement comprises of different particles made up of
C 3 S, C 2 S and so on. And each of them is starts to hydrate or react with water once
they come in contact with water.

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(Refer Slide Time: 39:57)

So, this is what we have in the final stage where we have some C-S-H outside here and
some C-S-H somewhere here and there is the un-hydrated C 3 S sitting here in the inside.
And depending upon the age at which we were looking at the picture. The type of C-S-H
or the density of the C-S-H in this layer and this layer is different and that is what is
making it impossible for the water present here to go and take the surface of cement
particle which will give us further hydration.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:35)

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If we try to find out the reaction thickness of Alite which is in terms of log of millimeter,
that is how it is plotted, that is how it goes. There are experiments which support the
simulation process and it should can be applied only if but, we should remember that this
model can be applied only to the hydration of Alite and not really to that of Portland
cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:03)

Now, coming to C-S-H gel, which is the most important hydration product. As we talked
about earlier in the discussion today because calcium-silicate-hydrate gel, which is
referred to loosely as the C-S-H gel because its stoichiometry varies depending on the
amounts of calcium oxide and silicon oxide in the cement. And this important gel is a
most important hydration product from cement form the point of view of strength
development. So, denser and the better quality C-S-H gel that we get the better is the
strength as far as cement is concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:42)

Now, let us take a closer look one again at the heat of hydration. When portal cement is
mixed with water heat is liberator and this is what is called of hydration and the result of
which is the result of the exothermic chemical reaction between cement and water. The
heat generated by the cement hydration rises the temperature of concrete. We will
continue this line of discussion then we are talking of mass concrete. Today we are
trying to understand that yes when cement hydrates it reacts with water a lot of heat is
liberator. And this heat liberated raises the temperature of the concrete. We need to take
this heat away from the concrete somehow and dissipated it in the atmosphere, that is
something which the dissipation part, something which we will talk about when we talk
of mass concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 42:44)

This slide here taken from the text concrete microstructure properties and materials gives
us the 3 day, 90 day and the 13 year heats of hydration in terms of the calories per gram
for the 4 principle components and we can see that depending on the compound. The
amount of heat that is liberated early is different and not only these numbers are different
but, also the percentage of this particular number with respect to the ultimate heat of
hydration that is quite different. For example, if we looking at C 3 S we are looking at 58
calories per gram liberated in 3 days as against 122 which may taken as the ultimate heat
of hydration of C 3 S. Compared to that we have 69 in case of C 4 A F has against 102
and 212 against 324 and so on.

So, there are different ways of looking at the data here and I will leave it as an
assignment or a thought for you that please look at this data and understand the
properties of the cement in light of the rates of heat liberated from the different
compounds.

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(Refer Slide Time: 44:03)

Now, if you look at the summary of the properties of cement and the hydration process.
Cement clinker contains 4 major compounds: C 3 S, C 2 S, C 3 A and C 4 A F. The
reaction rates of C 3 S and C 3 A are the fastest, the reaction rate of C 2 S and C 4 A F
are slow, the reactions of C 3 A and water is very early it becomes hard quickly. And it is
impossible to cast the concrete after that process started or has been initiated. The
reaction of tri calcium aluminate and water is very quick and leads to hardening of the
paste rendering the concrete, difficult to cast. And on the other hand in the presence of
gypsum the rate of reaction of C 3 A is controlled at becomes slow, the reaction rate of
each other mineral components of cementing increases with the increasing temperature.

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(Refer Slide Time: 45:05)

This picture here shows the typical reaction curve of Portland cement in terms of the rate
of heat liberated. Initially, we have a lot of heat liberated which goes down and there is a
stable period here and again we have a peak where lot of heat is liberated and we have
the gradual die out of the hydration reactions. This process here is matter of minutes, this
process here is a matter of ours and this continues over several days and that is
something which we must keep and the back of our mind when we study the properties
of cement hydration. That the hydration reaction continues over a very long period of
time and at different points in time, different products are formed as we can see here.
And these products they have different roles to play as far as the properties such as
settings, stiffening and strength development of concrete is concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 46:12)

Now, as far as the interaction between the sulphates solution which is coming from
gypsum and the reactivity of the tri calcium aluminate in the clinker is concerned if we
have both as low what we get is normal settings, if they are both very high we get rapid
setting, if there is a high low and a low high combination we get quick setting and false
setting and if this is completely absent we get a flash set where, the cement is rendered
hard very quickly and is impossible to cast. So, this is something, which is a summary of
how the reaction of cement takes place in the presence of the gypsum.

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(Refer Slide Time: 47:06)

And this here is the summary of the hydration of the degree of hydration what is it’s time
for the different phases of the cement that is C 2 S, C 3 S, C 4 A F and C 3 A.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:24)

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(Refer Slide Time: 47:32)

Now, before we close the discussion we should spend some time and try to understand
the pore structure of the hardened cement composites. These are the chemical reactions
of C 3 S and C 2 S and their reaction with water. There is mass involve and there is a
volume involved. So, the there is a mass of C 3 S and C 2 S and so on which is reactive
with the water. And like all chemical reactions there is very definite stoichiometry of
these chemical reactions. A certain amount of C 3 A requires a certain amount of C 3 A
requires a certain amount of water for complete reaction and if we extend that principle
we will have a statement pick to the effect that, in order that cement completely hydrate a
certain amount of water is chemically required whether or not from engineering
concentration the hydration proceeds to logical conclusion is a different story. It does not
stop us from saying that from chemical point of view cement require certain amount of
water to hydrate completely.

Hydration process which involves the formation of hydration product and consumption
of water can also lead to changes in volume and that is what is shown here, the volume
after a reaction is slightly smaller than the volume before the reaction that is, the volume
of the reaction products the hydration products is slightly small. What effectively it
means is that, there is a tendency for the concrete to shrink. Please remember that cement
and water are only a very small constitute or a contribute only a certain extent of the total
volume of concrete and therefore, the shrinkages which we see here do not reflect or do

187
not appear in the same magnitudes when we are talking of concrete. Because of the
relative volume of cement is this quite small in the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:40)

Having said that lets look at what is happening in a schematic and qualitative sense.
Initially we have cement and water which is present in the intermediate phase what has
happened is that the cement has become lesser, some amount of hydration products have
been found and some amount of water has been consumed. So, only this amount of water
is now left and this is the amount of pore space which is been generated on a count of
shrinkage. Continuing from here when we come to the final stage we have the cement is
completely consumed and therefore, we do not have any cement left, all the cement has
been converted into hydration products here. Some amount of water is left, because the
amount of water which is added to the cement is in general is usually higher than the
amount of water required from the chemical point of view for ensuing complete iteration
of cement. And this water remains as water within the hydration products.

And this is the pore space on account of shrinkage. We should now try to see what
happens to this water at the end of the day. This water actually escapes in the atmosphere
and therefore, what we have is the total pore space available after this amount of water
and cement has reacted is this, because this water once it leaves the hydration products
that also leaves behind wide spaces. So, this void here and this amount of shrinkage here

188
is in manner of speaking the total change in the volume or the total change in the solids
and liquids which are there in the system.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:57)

So, let us look at the small example and numerical example which says that, let us
consider a paste of water cement ratio of 40 percent. Now if you have 314g of cement we
will have 125.6 grams of water. Assuming that this specific gravity of cement is 3.14, the
volumetric composition of the paste is 100 cc of cement because 100 cc into 3.14 is 314.
And 25.6 cc of water will be 1 and therefore, we have the total paste volume of 225.6
which is a 100 plus 125.6 and the total mass of the paste is 439.6 which are coming from
314 grams of cement and 125.6 grams of water. Now, if we assume that complete
hydration also element needs 25 percent of water by rate of the cement and we assume
for that time being that this no change in the volume of the cement paste during
hydration. So, we are basically saying that we are ignoring any shrinkage that occurs.

189
(Refer Slide Time: 53:10)

Then, what we are having is situation something like this 78.5 grams of the 125.6 grams
of water will be consumed in the hydration, the 78.5 is nothing but 314 grams of cement
multiplied by 0.25 because that is what we have assumed is the amount of water which is
required for ensuring complete hydration. Now, if this 78.5 grams of water is consumed
then 47.1 grams of water will be left behind which is un-reacted and will eventually
escape leaving behind white spaces. Now, given that the initial volume of the cement
paste was 225.6 as we saw in the last slide, and the assumption that we made that the no
shrinkage and so on, and there is arithmetic what we do here, the hydration products will
way 392.5 grams, which is the sum of 78.5 grams of water and 314 grams of cement, and
they will occupy 178.5 cc of space.

Now, diagrammatically speaking this is the cement that we had, this is the water that we
had, these are the hydration products that are formed and this is the un-reacted water that
we left with at the end of the whole reaction process. Now, please remember this water
does not separate and just appeared at the top of the hydration products. This water is
actually distributed throughout the hydration product as you shown here, there can be
large channels having larger diameter, smaller channels like this they can be connected
they may not be connected and so on and so forth. These channels of water here are
finally, the pores which will be left behind when this water finds its way out into the
atmosphere.

190
(Refer Slide Time: 55:09)

Now, if you look at an intermediate situation we can have cement water, un-hydrated
cement in the intermediate stage, un-reacted water and whatever hydration products of
formed. And these hydration products themselves also have a certain amount of water
which is trapped within, which at the end of it will escape. And depending on whether or
not the final product or the final reaction reaches this state whether is no hydrated cement
we can have situation that they will be some un-hydrated cement also sitting in the final
system of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 56:09)

191
Now, once we have this understanding that yes water is present in the hydration products
and it will eventually escape. This picture here shows us different kinds of pores that are
found or that have been identified as far as we understanding of cement hydration
products and concrete in gendering is concerned. There is entrapped air, there is
entrained air, there is capillary pore, gel pore, intracrystalite pores, they have different
size ranges. For example, entrapped air is the largest it is there in the millimeter order,
entrained air is lightly smaller and then we have a large range here of capillary force, a
very small range here for gel pores and then there are some other pores the intracrystalite
pores which there within the different C-S-H layers and so on. So, this picture here gives
us an idea that concrete or cement hydration products they have different pores the
genesis of those pores comes from largely the un-hydrated water that is left behind and
which finally escapes.

(Refer Slide Time: 57:23)

So, once we understand this part we can talking terms of a pore size distribution, the gel
pores, the capillary pores, thus entrained air and entrapped air and we can talking terms
of what is the percentage contribution of each of these pores of different sizes to the total
porosity. And that is something which we will try to talk about at some other point in
time. Remember that this porosity leads to the permeability of the concrete making the
concrete susceptible to attack from deleterious material from the atmosphere from this
line water or whatever depending on the environment to which the concrete structure is
exposed.

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(Refer Slide Time: 58:16)

Now, before we conclude a discussion today. Let us try to go back and see what we need
to do further. Study the classification of cement in light of cement composition, the
higher strength cement, high the low heat of hydration cements, low alkali cements and
so on and so forth. Learn more about the chemistry and kinetics of hydration reactions,
today we did not talk about them much. Study the effect of addition of mineral and
chemical admixtures on the hydration process.

Learn more about the models of hydration of cement. There are models like that Nist
model go through model literature is available about that, which explains how cement
hydrates, what are the different a properties which are studied in the hydration process
and how they affect the properties of the concrete. And I would like you to create images
in your mind to model the process of hydration divided into settings, stiffening, instant
development, because once you have that in the mind very clearly, it facilitates
understanding of other processes and the concrete engineering in general.

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(Refer Slide Time: 59:25)

I would like to acknowledge the help from the JSCE, the Tokyo and the Kajima
Corporation in Japan. The Friends and colleagues at IIT Kanpur, Tokyo University and
the construction industry in India and Japan. Professor Uomoto in the public work
resource institute Tsukuba, formally professor of the University of Tokyo, who help
tremendously to improve or to develop my own understanding of cement hydration.

Thank you.

194
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 6
Basic properties of concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

And welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology, which is a course
where we are trying to revise the basic principle underlying concrete science and
engineering developing a framework, which helps us understand the present day scenario
in concrete construction. Going through some of the issues involved in special and high
performance concrete and their quality control testing, which includes performance
based thinking; durability and maintenance as far as concrete structures are concerned.

195
(Refer Slide Time: 00:52)

Now, we have seen this picture before, which gives as basic model as to how we are
going to view reinforced concrete in this discussion. This is the concrete surrounding the
reinforcing steel which is an integral part of reinforced concrete construction, and this
concrete is made up of coarse aggregates suspended in mortar, or paste which is cement
and water.

And if you look around the coarse aggregate particles, or the fine aggregate particles for
that matter, we have a transition zone which defines the transition from the real solid
cement paste to the aggregate phase, and if we look at blown up picture of the cement
paste, we have solid hydration products somewhere here and that is interspersed with
these pore spaces. We have seen how this pore spaces come about that is basically, on
account of the access water that we use in concrete, over and above that which is
required for hydration of the cement.

196
(Refer Slide Time: 02:11)

We also have gone through the constitution or the composition of normal concrete,
which consist of course, aggregate, fine aggregate cement and water.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:19)

And the basic processes proportioning, mixing, transportation, placing vibration

consolidation curing and from the point of view of a project, we normally have specific
conditions a set of specifications and structural design and construction methodology,
and then we go through this steps. Thus the discussion as far as the project is concerned
is very specific to that project and the engineer needs to pick and choose, the best option

197
as far as proportioning is concerned, mixing is concerned, transportation for that project
is concerned and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:56)

Now, coming to the subject of concrete engineering and technology, this is the outline
which we have defined for ourselves, as far as revising the fundamentals of concrete and
that is what we are doing now.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:08)

Today’s discussion will be largely focused on properties of fresh and hardened concrete,
as we know them. We will confine our discussion to very simple concrete, we will not

198
get involve with complicated concretes, we will not get involve with special concretes as
far as normal concrete is concerned. What are the properties of fresh and hardened
concrete? We will discuss them in a framework that will help us better understand,
special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:41)

Now, concrete has basically two distinct states, the first state where it shows behavior
similar to that of a fluid, which can be pumped, it acquires the shape of the mold, in
which it is poured and has little resistance to deformation. In fact this property is at the
root of the popularity of concrete as a construction material in the present day. As far as
the hardened state is concerned, concrete transforms itself into a solid material with
substantial compressive strength and so on. This transformation is brought about by
hydration, and the hydrates of cement provide the basic structure of the chemical
products that give strength to the concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 04:43)

Functionally, concrete should satisfy laid down criteria for the fresh state that is it should
have adequate workability and so on. As far as the hardened state is concerned, it should
have adequate strength as may be decided by the designer. Then there are specific
requirements, which may be in terms of durability. For example, there may be
restrictions on parameters such as the water cement ratio, the cement content and so on.
And there may be some requirements in terms of temperature rise during setting, and so
on and so forth. So, basically the properties of concrete that we study have to be around
these functional requirements that are concrete needs to satisfy.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:33)

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A word about normal and special concretes, there has to be a certain range of the
variables over which the operation or the process can be called normal. And if any of
these processes goes out of that range, or another special process becomes involved, the
concrete needs to be treated as special. This is something which we must keep at the
back of our minds, when we are talking of properties and quality control, which involves
testing of concretes. So, the discussion today would be largely confine to normal
concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:14)

Coming to the properties of fresh and hardened concrete, we know that it should have the
required properties in the fresh and hardened state, meet durability requirements. And
here are some of the properties which are actually listed, fresh concrete workability, air
content, segregation resistance, flow ability in hardened concrete, we have compressive
strength may be tensile, and flexural strength, stress strain curve, creep and shrinkage
and so on.

201
(Refer Slide Time: 06:36)

So, this here is the list of properties that we will be talking about in our discussion today,
as far as the properties of fresh concrete are concerned, workability, air content,
temperature setting time and bleeding.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:50)

As far as hardened concrete is concerned, we will try to focus on compressive strength,

tensile and flexural strength, the modulus of elasticity, the stress strain curve, creep and
shrinkage, permeability and durability and see where we go.

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(Refer Slide Time: 07:06)

Now, coming to the workability part of it, what is workability? We often see in literature
term is workability and consistency. And if you look at the definitions, which may be
available in different texts, workability is defined as the ease of being able to work
concrete into different parts of a formwork. Consistency on the other hand, is sometimes
defined as the amount of work required to be done, in order to compact the concrete.
Please note that the two definitions are completely opposite in the sense that a concrete
with a high degree of workability, will have a low level of consistency

Now, given a concrete if it is very highly workable by the definition that is proposed
here, what it means is that it will easily occupy, the different corners of a mold and is
very easy to work with. It naturally implies that the amount of work done, or the amount
of work required to be done, in order that the concrete is compacted would be very low.

As far as we are concerned in this discussion not only in the discussion today, but also in
the discussion during the course of the different lectures, in this course we will follow
this definition of workability. When we say that the concrete is highly workable we mean
that it is very easy to work with, when it is harsh or less workable the concrete requires a
lot of work to be done, in order to compact it or in order to make sure that it occupies the
different corners in a formwork, and so on and so forth.

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(Refer Slide Time: 08:57)

Now, let us come to a schematic or a qualitative description of workability. Workability

has a range from a stiff concrete to flowing concretes, and then in between here we have
what can be called a normal concrete and that is what I said that, in order for a concrete
to be classified normally. We have to understand that we are talking of a certain range of
workability, both on this side as well as on this side the concrete needs to be treated as a
special concrete and different tests, different specifications need to be brought into play.

So, as far as the methods for measuring quantitatively, the workability of normal
concrete is concerned. We have two tests the slump and the compaction factor there is a
slightly different range over which these tests help us, differentiate between two
concretes. When we go towards stiff concrete, the workability is better represented by a
test called the vebe time. When we go into the regime, where the concrete begins to flow
then the workability is better represented by a test like the slump flow.

What we must remember from this diagram is that in this range for example, the slump
or the compaction factor test is not a discerning test, it will not be able to differentiate
between the workability’s of one concrete versus another. Similarly, in this range the
slump and the compaction factor will be unsuccessful, in any attempt to classify the
concrete or characterize the concrete, or better understand their workability’s and we
need to go to the vebe time.

204
On the other hand vebe time will not be the best test, to carry out if the concrete
consistency or the workability is in this range. The times will almost mix the same that is
something, which we must remember when we pick and choose a particular test, we
should be careful then the test is appropriate and helps us, actually be able to
differentiate between two concretes or a concrete mix today, and tomorrow and so on
and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:34)

Now, coming to a few test let us look at the slump. This is the slump that we have for a
stiff concrete, if you notice the slump cone has largely retained with shape and we have
more or less a zero slump kind of concrete. Whereas, this test here is the slump, which is
normal and it is a normal concrete where the slump can be used, as a discerning test.

On this side here we have a highly workable concrete, and the slump cone completely
collapsed. And we need to differentiate or we need to measure the workability of
concrete not in terms of the slump, but in terms of the diameter of this is spread, this is
something which we will talk about in greater detail, when we are talking about special
high flowing concretes like the self compacting concrete and so on.

205
(Refer Slide Time: 12:41)

For the sake of completeness, this picture here shows the vebe apparatus for
determination of workability of concretes which are stiff, these concretes are used in
applications such as dams, roller compacted concrete pavements and so on. And the
measure that is the vebe test gives us a response in terms of seconds, I am leaving the
actual method out of the discussion today, and expect that you will be able to read it on
your own and know that how we determine, the actual seconds involve or the time
involved for the test to be completed and those seconds or that amount of time helps us,
quantify the workability of the concrete in terms of the vebe time.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:36)

206
Continuing from there let us talk of the compaction factor test basically, what this test
does is allows the concrete to fall from one container to another and then to another. And
we compare the density of the concrete obtained here, with respect to another density
which is obtained by filling the same container, and compacting the concrete using
vibrators and so on. So, that we get the maximum possible density.

So, the compaction factor is a measure of how much, the concrete allowed to fall from
this place to this place, and this place to this place how much has that been compacted
with respect to a properly compacted concrete, and with as far as that is concerned we
get numbers like 0.8, 0.9, 0.95 which moves towards more and more workable concretes.
If a concrete has a compaction factor of 1 what it means, is that the compaction achieve
by along the concrete to fall from container a to container b and finally, to container c is
the same as the amount of compaction that was obtained by filling the container c, with
the concrete and trying to compact it to the extent possible using internal vibrators, and
so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:11)

Now, let us come to segregation resistance which is a slightly different property concrete
we know is a mixture comprising of coarse aggregates suspended in mortar. Mortar
being a mixture comprising of fine aggregates suspended in a fluid phase of cement
paste, and a cement paste itself is a mixture of very fine cement particles suspended in
water, which is a fluid.

207
Now, separation of the solid phase from others in any of these cases whether, it is
concrete or it is mortal or it is paste can be called segregation. And the ability of the fluid
phase to resist it is called segregation resistance. So, as far as concrete is concerned for
example, if the mortal moves forward leaving all the coarse aggregate behind, we say
that the concrete, we say that the concrete does not have adequate segregation resistance
because the fluid that is mortar is not able to resist the separation of the coarse aggregate
from it.

Similarly, we can talk in terms of segregation a mortar and in the case of cement paste
segregation really boils on to the separation between water, and the cement particles. We
must remember that the properties of the fluid phase in all these cases, are time
dependent due to the continue hydration of cement, which starts as soon as the water and
cement come together and that happens in the mixture itself.

Accept that of course, in the first few minutes or the first few tens of minutes, we may
assume that that something which we have to live with. Having said all this there are no
standard tests to measure segregation resistance, and we can only talk in terms of
segregation resistance in qualitative terms that is we look at a concrete, or look at a
model and say that segregation has occurred, we are not able to quantify this so far, and
it is a challenge to concrete engineers to develop an appropriate and a robust test.

One of the important things we must remember, as far as concrete engineering is

concerned is that all the test that we do should be robust. We should be able to carry out
these tests in the field, often with not very sophisticated equipment often using not very
well educated or very highly qualified professionals. There may be professionals with the
lot of experience, but they may not have all the background that is required to understand
the hydration process, or the strength development process and all that.

208
(Refer Slide Time: 18:23)

Now, coming to air content, air in concrete as we have already said in our earlier
discussion is entrained or entrapped, entrained air is intentionally put in place and the
particles are very fine and uniformly distributed within the concrete, and this is achieved
by using an appropriate air entraining at mixture. Whereas, entrapped air is present
unintentionally and is generally much larger in size, as far as individual particles are
concerned. When it comes to measurement of course, any measurement method would
not be able to distinguish between air, which is entrained or entrapped.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:06)

209
Let us take a look now as far as a content is concerned depending on whether, the
concrete is air entrained or non air entrained that is it has an air entraining at mixture, or
it does not have an air entraining at mixture. The air content may be taken as a specific
value may be about 1 and 2 percent depending on the shape, and size of aggregates
etcetera. However, and air content of about 4 to 6 percent is prescribed for concretes
which are exposed to cyclic freezing and thawing and what the air. Now, what is the air
entrainment to there are three things involved, one is increase in workability, air
entrainment increases workability through the ball bearing action of air particles.

There is a tendency for some decrement in strength, as the air particles serve as points for
stress concentration and also basically, they are voids and at the end of it higher the voids
the strength has to be low. Then it improves the resistance to cyclic freezing and thawing
so basically there are these three things, which we must keep in mind when we are
talking of air entrainment concrete.

As far as an interplay between these two is concerned, it will not be very fair to say that
air entrainment decreases the strength, though I have said here that air content decreases
the strength, we should remember that air entraining at mixtures also tend to disperse the
cement particles and that helps us get a larger, area available for the hydration of cement
and that tends to increase the strength of the cement paste or the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:22)

210
So, really speaking air entrainment does not necessarily lead to a net reduction in
strength, but in principle yes, as we increase the air the strength tends to go down. Now,
taking a closure look at the air entrainment concrete using air entraining agents, these
particles are in the range of about 30 to 250 micrometers and diameter, and they set in a
concrete matrix much the way this these red dots are shown. And there are water voids
which are all over the place and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:45)

When it comes to the resistance against freezing and thawing, what we are trying to do
really is to see how these air particles help, in dissipating the forces that will arise or the
pressures that will arise, when these water voids or these voids full of water. The water
in these voids tends to freeze on account of a temperature in the atmosphere, which may
go below 0.

So, as the temperature goes below 0 here at the surface of concrete there is a thermal
gradient the temperature distribution within the concrete is established, and we see that
near the surface this water in the pores or pore spaces or voids that tends to freeze. And
once this water freezes it expands, and these air particles around the water they provide
some kind of a outlet for the water that is getting pushed out, on account of the freezing
action thereby, holding the concrete together in this area and that is how the kind of
loosely or simplistically explain, better performance of air entraining concretes as far as
freezing and thawing is concerned.

211
(Refer Slide Time: 23:14)

This is another schematic representation of how, we rate the durability factor and the air
content. This really is the result of a lot of test carried out with concretes in this range of
air content that is between 0 and say 1 and a half 2, 3 percent and concrete having air
content of 4 percent to 5, 7, 8 percent and there we see that the performance as far as the
durability factor is concerned, and this durability factor is a measure of the performance
of concrete under cyclic freezing and thawing.

This test being carried out by exposing the concrete to cyclic freezing and thawing, and
see how the pore structure in the concrete deteriorates or undergoes the stress, under the
action of these forces and we find that these concretes perform much better than the
concretes in this area, that is to say air entrainment helps the performance of concrete in
freezing and thawing.

212
(Refer Slide Time: 24:27)

This is a simple device of measuring, the air in fresh concrete and the importance of
using air measurement or air content measurement in fresh concrete, is becoming more
and more important, as we are using air entrained or air entraining at mixtures.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:51)

Now, coming to the temperature this here is a setup which is sometimes used to study,
the changes in temperature on account of the liberation of the heat of hydration, we have
seen that when cement hydrates it liberates a lot of heat, and that heat liberation leads to

213
an increase in the temperature of concrete, and we want to monitor this temperature rise
which is at the root of the formation or introduction of thermal stresses in the concrete.

And this setup which is shown here records, the increase in temperature in concrete on
account of the liberation of heat of hydration of cement. So, what we really do is place
the concrete which to use in a particular application. So, it is a test which is semi field
oriented, we decide the mix to be used in a particular project, use exactly that mix the
same materials especially, the cement and then try to study how the temperature rises for
that particular cement for that particular proportion, and we maintain adiabatic
conditions to get standard results. And variation in temperature of concrete is recorded
through an instrument panel as shown and of course, this is a close up of this container
which houses the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:18)

The initial temperature of placement is an important factor that determines, the

maximum temperature reached during hydration. At times efforts such as pre-cooling of
constituent materials, use of chilled water and so on are resorted to keep the temperature
of fresh concrete in check because there may be specifications, which say that the
temperature of fresh concrete should not exceed a certain number, may be 20 degree
centigrade may be 18 degree centigrade and so on, depending on the application.

So, measurement of the temperature of fresh concrete is a very important parameter, as

far as the quality control of concrete is concerned in those projects, that temperature of

214
fresh concrete is important when we try to understand, what will be the maximum
temperature that is reached during the hydration process. If we lower the temperature of
fresh concrete, we will get a lower peak temperature reached.

And if we are able to reduce the peak temperature raised, we will be addressed the
problem of introduction of thermal stresses in concrete construction. This discussion is
especially relevant, when we are talking of mass concrete applications such as though
that such as, those in dams sometimes in roller compacted concretes and also, sometimes
in high strength concretes where the amount of cement being used is really large.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:06)

Of course, as far as measurement is concerned a simple thermometer is used to determine

the temperature of fresh concrete. We simply take at thermometer, inserted in the mass
of fresh concrete and we get the temperature that is good enough. Now, this here is a
method or a simple representation of how properties of fresh concrete should be
recorded, we should record the date and time of placing the concrete, the slump, air
content and the temperature of fresh concrete, which are all very crucial from the point
of view of good record keeping or archiving of properties of concrete used, in the
different pores of a concrete construction.

215
(Refer Slide Time: 28:36)

Now, coming to setting time…

(Refer Slide Time: 28:41)

Concrete sets overtime, as a result of the formation of more and more hydration
products, during hydration. Now, we are familiar with the setting of cement and we
know the initial setting time, and the final setting time of cement is a quality control
parameter. And we have specifications which say, that the cement should not have a
initial setting time higher than something or lower than something, it should not have a
final setting time, which is higher than something or lower than something.

216
Now, even though in the case of concrete the setting time of concrete itself is somewhat
related to that of cement, but it is obviously exactly not the same because the cement
setting times are determined using paste. Whereas, concrete is not a paste, concrete has
vary amounts of cement it has varying amounts of what a cement ratio, it is placed under
different conditions and therefore, it is not proper to talk in terms of relating directly, the
setting time of cement and that of concrete.

This picture here shows the view of the proctor’s apparatus, which is used for
determining the setting time of concrete, the principle is the same as that you use in the
vicat apparatus for cement and that is penetration resistance of course, we use a set of
needles as shown here, and these needles are changed over a period of time as more and
more setting takes place.

The test is carried out at regular intervals, we try to study the penetration of these
needles, and once the penetration resistance reaches a level of 500 PSI, and 4000 PSI.
And leaving in the conversion to the SI units out of here, please do it at your end, and
when the penetration resistance reaches these levels, we say that the concrete has reached
initial set and final set. The initial set corresponds to a penetration resistance of 500 PSI
and the final set refers to a penetration resistance of 4000 PSI, and of course, we must
make sure that that it is not taken very close to each other, or close to the edge.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:13)

217
We will talk about a little more, when we look at the actual set up, this shows the actual
set up this of course, is the same picture as we saw just now, this is the test for the setting
times being actually, carried out we can see that there is a mold which has been filled
with mortar. Now, the concrete is wet sieved to remove the coarse aggregate from the
concrete; and then we have basically, what is left here is mortar and here is the proctor
apparatus, where we are trying to plunge a needle into the concrete and observing the
penetration resistance on the dial gauge. There is a manual version there are automatic
version so on, which are available and at the end of it based on the values that we have
500 and 4000 that we talked about in the last slide, which are essentially arbitrary in
nature, we can define the times for the initial and final set.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:10)

This here is the schematic representation what really goes on, the setting time can be
affected by the presence of chemical and mineral admixtures. The initial setting time and
final setting time of cement is basically, a quality control measure for cement and not for
concrete. So, we may have a situation where if you plot penetration resistance, we can
get these values and what we try to do is to say that at this penetration resistance, which
is 500 P S I and at this penetration resistance which is 4000 PSI.

What are the times that correspond to the penetration resistance, and we take t 1 and t 2
to be the initial and final setting times. What is the importance of the setting time of
concrete as far as concrete and engineering is concerned, that is from the point of view of

218
cold joints, design of formwork removal, concreting rates as far as these things are
concerned, we are very much interested to know, what exactly is the setting time of
concrete. How much is the initial setting time, how much is the final setting time that
will help us better control formations of cold joints design of formwork, removal
concreting the rates of concreting and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:31)

When we are doing setting time for concrete, when we are trying to do the setting time of
concrete or measure the setting time of concrete, we said that the concrete is wet sieved
to remove the coarse aggregate. Now, the logic for that is given here, it is only the mortar
phase that contributes to the setting of concrete. Coarse aggregates their presence does
not really affect the hydration process.

And therefore, we may say that we can actually, neglect them or ignore their presence
and just work with the mortar, as far as the setting time is concerned. Though in
principle, we can extend that argument to mortar as well and try to remove the sand, but
the engineering difficulty in removing sand from a concrete mixture, mix impossible for
us to do that and therefore, we are happy or we have to live with the fact, that we will
work with mortar, and try to call that as the setting time of concrete.

The method is based on penetration resistance to the needle, and the presence of an
aggregate, coarse aggregate could interfere with the readings whether or not the needle
comes in contact with the coarse aggregate or not as shown here. So, if there is a needle

219
here and we have a coarse aggregate setting, very close to the surface or coarse aggregate
is setting somewhere here, which is away from the surface the reading in this three cases
will be quite different.

So, in order to get rid or make sure that the readings that we get are independent of the
position of the coarse aggregate within the mass, we remove the coarse aggregate of
course, if we want to use the coarse aggregate then the size of the needle also, needs to
be changed. The size of the needle is decided on the basis of the size of the particles, that
the needle is trying to penetrate, but needle size should be larger than most of that
particle size. In fact, all the particles that are present in the phase that we are trying to
study here.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:57)

Now, coming to the last property of fresh concrete that we will discuss, that is bleeding.
Bleeding is a form of segregation and is the movement of water, present in concrete
towards the top of the placing. The some of this evaporate the water that cumulates or
appears in the surface some of it evaporates, some of it is absorbed back and results in
the higher water cement ratio in the top layer, we will try to take a look at the schematic
representation of this process in a later slide.

Here what is shown is how the bleeding is determined, we try to draw out and measure
the water that appears or collects at the top of a cylindrical vessel, and the bleeding water
is collected using a measuring cylinder and a pipette. So, what we do is collect the

220
concrete in a cylindrical vessel like this, which is covered with the lid and as the water if
we have this is the cylindrical lid we fill the concrete up to this point. Whatever, water
appears at the surface here that is drawn out, and the lid is closed back. This process is
continued till such time, as the water seizes to appear on the surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:06)

The test as it says, here involves filling up the concrete in a cylindrical vessel 25
centimeters in diameter up to height of 25 centimeters in three layers, damping each
layer for compaction. Concrete is then allowed to stand and the water collects at the top
surface is drawn off, using a pipette and the whole container may be gently tilted to one
side to facilitate collection of water, the water emerging at the top is collected at regular
intervals. And we continue this process till such time as the water seizes to appear.

221
(Refer Slide Time: 37:33)

This series of pictures here shows, what goes on in the bleeding process as water that
accumulates at the top during bleeding, part of it evaporates as shown here and part of it
is reabsorbed in the concrete and therefore, this concrete here becomes a small layer of
concrete, which has a water cement ratio which is higher than the main body concrete
here because this is the concrete, which has a water cement ratio of the original mix more
or less.

Whereas, this is the concrete here which has more water, the water in the mix as well as
the water that first appear at the top and that was reabsorbed on account of bleeding,
bleeding is measured in terms of a bleeding ratio, which is expressed as the ratio of the
water collected to that present in the sample. So, once we know the amount of concrete
that we have taken we know the mix proportion that concrete. So, we know the amount
of water in that sample depending, on how much water we have what proportion of it is
collected or is removed in the bleeding test, gives us the bleeding ratio.

And this diagram here shows how the accumulated water or accumulated bleeding water
moves initially, we do not have too much water coming, but gradually you find that a lot
of water moves in appears in the surface and finally, no more water appears at the
surface and that is the end of the bleeding test. We have this as the total amount of water
that has appeared, and this is the thing this parameter is compared with the water present
in the sample to give us the bleeding ratio.

222
(Refer Slide Time: 39:36)

Now, coming to the properties of hardened concrete as far as the characteristic

compressive strength is concerned, this here is a picture of how the strength that we
determine or variation of compressive strength goes in more or less, take it to be a
normal distribution about a certain mean. And the characteristic compressive strength is
defined as that number here, below which not more than 5 percent values fall that is the
area of under the curve below here area under the curve, up to this point is not more than
5 percent.

In other words, the area on this side of the curve which is the portion, which is higher
than the characteristic strength is 95 percent. And once we have this picture, we have
what is called the target proportioning compressive strength that is the strength, which is
used to proportional concrete mix and that is the mean value here. So, we need to target
the concrete proportions in a manner that the mean strength is here, which is higher than
the characteristic compressive strength by an amount, which is related to the standard
deviation that are obtained.

Such that once a large number of samples are tested, not more than 5 percent of those
samples will fall below the characteristic strength. Now, that is something which is part
of the discussion, when we do compressive strength determinations and do quality
control of hardened concrete, and try to see acceptance criteria and so on as we shall see
later on when we talk about quality control, and concrete construction.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:21)

Now, coming to tensile and flexural strength, these strengths or the tensile strength or the
flexural strength of the concrete are often given in terms of the compressive strength,
codes may give expressions to enable a designer to estimate the tensile or the flexural
strength, in certain cases where it is these parameters that really govern the design and
that happens for example, in road construction, repair works and all that, there in the
absence of data if we do not determine these parameters directly, they are allowed to
determine the or estimate, the tensile and flexural strength on compressive strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:10)

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But if we have to actually determine them, this here are two methods which is a modulus
of rupture or the split cylinder test, which are used to estimate the tensile strength of
concrete maybe tensile cylinder strength or the modulus of rupture. Modulus of rupture
being determined by a prismatic beam and the split cylinder test, being carried out as
shown in this picture which essentially, involves applying the load on a cylinder in this
fashion, which gives us a stress distribution as shown here and causes the cylinder to
split along the diameter. So, this gives us the tensile strength or the split cylinder tensile
strength and that is how it determines tensile strength, should that be required in a
particular application.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:03)

When it comes to flexural strength, which again is required in certain structure which are
governed by flexural strength. The ASTM for example, gives us the alternative of the
third point loading or the center point loading. The third point loading basically, says that
we have a prismatic beam and we apply the load at two places on the top, and these three
spans are equal.

So, we have the third point loading that is what call the third point loading whereas in
this case the load is applied at the center. And depending on what method you are
following particular standard, we follow in a particular country, we determine the
flexural strength of concrete directly because this is indeed concrete failing in flexure,
directly we get this is indeed failure of concrete in flexure.

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(Refer Slide Time: 44:03)

Now, coming to the stress strain curve and the modulus of elasticity of concrete that
again is a very important property, and sometimes we use a compressometer as shown
here using a cylindrical specimen, and the load being applied to the cylindrical specimen
and the deformation in the cylindrical being measured, or recorded using either dial
gauges that shown here in a compressometer, or using normal strain gauges which are
fixed to the surface of concrete. And we get the stress strain curve of the concrete and
based on the stress strain curve, we can calculate the modulus of elasticity.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:49)

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Now, in the case of concrete the stress strain curve is often non-linear and then flat, we
are talking of strain at this axis and stress here. So, how do we determine or estimate the
modulus of elasticity of a material, which has a stress strain curve which is not really
linear. So, as far as concrete is concerned there are different definitions which tell us,
either we can take the tangents at different points and time, and the we can take the
tangents at different points, along the stress strain curve and that gives us the slope of
these lines, gives us the modulus of elasticity or we can talk in terms of a certain part of
this graph and try to talk in terms of a modulus of elasticity, which is essentially defined
by the slope of this line.

Another possibility is to talk in terms of the modulus of elasticity or the slope of the line
at the initial point of the stress strain curve. So, there are different ways of defining the
stress strain curve of concrete and different specifications, do different things.
Specifications also allow us to use an expression, which is of the type that the modulus
of velocity is equal to sum constant times, the root of characteristic strength or some
such expression, where this constant is given and this is an empirical equation which
allows a designer to estimate the modulus of elasticity, from only the characteristic
compressive strength, in the absence of the actual stress strain curve that can be obtained.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:48)

Continue on the properties of hardened concrete, we talked about shrinkage in concrete

and the creep. Now, as far as shrinkage is concerned though the shrinkage itself is very

227
small, but it is the source of quite lot of problem including cracking. There is shrinkage
cracking that occurs in concrete unless steps are taken to ensure that shrinkage is kept
under control, and extent of shrinkage that we get is related to the proportions of
concrete constituents and specially the type and properties of the cement, and the size of
aggregates.

So, this here is a length comparator which has a standard length bar, and based on this
length we can use the frame shown here to study the small changes in length, that occur
in a concrete prism which could be of a certain size. So, if we have a concrete prism
which is shown here and we have a length corresponding to that, the changes in this
length here, sometimes concrete expands or it contracts whatever dimensional changes
take place here that can be measured using a comparator. As far as the laboratory
techniques are concerned, there are often very sophisticated equipment which needs to be
fabricated and used, if we are doing a research work using shrinkage of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:24)

Coming to the last two properties permeability and durability, well take them up in a
separate discussion when we are talking in terms of the porosity of concrete relating it to
permeability, and both these parameters are very closely linked to durability studies. So,
there is something which we will do later.

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(Refer Slide Time: 48:54)

And at this point we are ready to conclude the discussion for the day, and we should try
to see what else we need to know about to complete or understanding of what, we have
talked about today. I would like you to measure the workability of concrete in the
laboratory, and try to see how it varies, how it varies once we change especially the what
a content of the concrete. I would like you to make a list of air entraining admixtures
available in the market, and their chemical composition, it will be a good exercise to
understand, the chemistry involved at least to some extent of the interaction between the
chemical admixtures, and the cement and so on in terms of the air entrainment.

If we make a list of specifications that restrict the maximum temperature of concrete at

the time of placing as a quality control measure that will enable you to understand or
having appreciation of the fact as to why we need to measure, and record the temperature
of fresh concrete. We talked of three different test the vebe test, the normal slump test
and the slump flow kind of test, the compaction factor kind of test and of course, in
regions, where these tests can actually be used together they are obviously, is a
relationship between this test, if the compaction factor is increasing for different
concretes a, b, c and d which are increased, which are arranged in the order of increasing
compaction factors, how will this slumps vary.

What is a relationship between slump and a vebe test? A study of these relationships
between the different tests will help you understand, the whole idea of measurement of

229
workability better, and the last thing that I have here is to obtain and study the stress
strain curve of concrete, and compare it with an idealized curve, which is often used by a
designer; with this we come to an end of the discussion for the day.

Thank you.

230
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Computer Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 7
Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 1 of 3)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:24)

And welcome back to this course on concrete engineering and technology, where we are
trying to work with revising the fundamentals of concrete proportioning of concrete
mixes, concrete constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration,
reinforcement in concrete and maintenance of concrete structures.

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(Refer Slide Time: 00:48)

Now, having completed our discussion of the revision of fundamental concrete, let us
begin the exercise of proportioning of concrete mixes. In the previous lectures or
discussions, we have covered the basic ingredients of concrete; that is cement, fine
aggregates, and coarse aggregates. Then we have also covered the basic properties of
fresh and hardened concrete, in terms of workability which is largely measured in terms
of slump and compressive strength, which could be measured using cylinders or cubes
depending on the a misspecifications or the countries in which we are working.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:21)

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Now, in today’s discussion now beginning today’s discussion, we will focus on
proportioning of simple concrete mixes, that is those mixes, which have only water
cement, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate; that as we have always asserted in this
course is the basic concrete. As far as proportioning of concrete that contain other
materials, which is admixtures whether they are chemical or mineral or combination of
both that subject will be taken up in a subsequent discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:55)

How and before we start detailed discussion on the proportioning of concrete mixes, let
us go through certain basic concepts, fundamental concepts on which the entire exercise
of proportioning concrete mixes is based.

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(Refer Slide Time: 02:22)

This discussion will help us better understand the proportioning of concrete with
admixtures. Also in our treatments of special concretes in subsequent discussion and the
basic concepts, that we want to talk about in the discussion today are the water slump
relationship. What is the fact of water content, the unit water content that is the k v’s of
water but cubic meter of concrete on the slump of concrete? That is how water content
affects the slump or for the given slump, how we determine the water content?

Then we will talk about characteristic and target strengths for proportioning of concrete
mixes. Characteristic strength is what the designer basis, his discussion or his design on.
He wants, the designer wants the concrete structure, that designer wants the concrete in a
beam or a column or a slab to have a certain characteristic strength and he basis is design
on that strength. A concrete engineer or person whose responsible for providing that
concrete at site make sure that the, characteristic strength is obtained and for that he uses
a target strength for the designing of those mixes.

So, we have a characteristic strength and target strength and we use both of these to
proportion concrete mixes. Then we talk about the water cement ratio versus strength
relationship water cement ratio is the primary factor, which effects the strength of
concrete. We have seen that when we are talking about the properties of concrete. Now,
how this strength is affected that is something which we must have a clear picture on and
we will revise that concept today. Another concept that we need to look at very carefully

234
is that of s by a. Now, what is s by a? We will talk about it later in this discussion today,
but in principle it is the saint component of the total aggregate. So, the concrete
comprises of cement, water, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate. So, the fine aggregate
and the coarse aggregate together are the inert materials in the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:57)

(Refer Slide Time: 05:02)

Now, among that inert materials what is the proportion of sand? That is the fine
aggregate that parameter is s by a. Now, let us begin our discussion with the water slump

235
relationship. If we keep on increasing the unit water content as show here from
something like a to b, it can be expected that the slump which is measured in millimeters,
will keep on increasing and the simplest way to represent that relationship is by a straight
line as shown here.

Now, this is not a unique straight line and the line or the variation between slump and the
unit water content could be a b or it could be c d or it could be e f. Now, what determines
for a given unit water content, what determines this slump that we will obtain? Whether
we will obtain something like this somewhere here or we will obtain something like this
here. Now, what determines this slumps value? This variation depends on the type of
aggregate, the size of the aggregate, the particle size distribution that we use, as far the
aggregation is concerned, for aggregates which are smaller, we may expect that certain
amount of water will give you a certain amount of slump. If the aggregate size becomes
larger, then for the same slump we may require a same water content and so on.

So, even though in principle, it can be said that the slump water content relationship is
largely linear. The variation actually depends on the type size and particle size
distribution of the aggregates used also and the type of cement used the properties of the
cement and so on. We need to carry out tests to obtain actual data using the actual
material at site to determine the unit water content for slump relationship, for a given
material set. We need to varying a water content over certain reasonable range to get the
kind of slump, that we get for a particular material which will be used at a particular site.

236
(Refer Slide Time: 07:16)

(Refer Slide Time: 07:32)

What can we said, therefore is that for a given set of materials and their properties the
variation will be taken to be a single straight line, which is given here as x y coming to
the second thing, which is the characteristic strength. The target mean strength, which is
useful or which is required when we have proportioning concrete mixes.

237
(Refer Slide Time: 07:43)

If we test large number of samples of concrete, what we will get is the results will be
normally distributed, that is for the different cubes or cylinders. That we test the strength
will not be a single unit value, it will vary in a manner. That will give certain average
and certain standard deviation, which is what is associated with a normal distribution and
I am not getting into the details of statistics, the normal distribution is what is largely
assumed and let us leave it at that.

This normal distribution as I said is characterized by a mean, so this is the mean of the
normal distribution and a standard deviation, which essentially represents the spread of
the distribution. It can be measured or qualitatively understood in terms of the sharpness
of the peak of the distribution. So, these two parameters the mean and the standard
deviation, they characterize a normal distribution that is the statistics. What we are
saying is that if we test large number of concrete cubes, we will get a strength
distribution, which is normally distributed. That is that strength distribution, we will have
a mean and a standard deviation, which you can determine using a knowledge of
statistics. That is what I have said a concrete can be characterized by a mean strength and
the standard deviation.

238
(Refer Slide Time: 09:23)

Though it is an over simplification of the issues involved, it can be stated that mean
strength is related to the quality and proportioning of the constituents of concrete.
Standard deviation is a measure of the variation in the quality of concrete. See the
concrete strength is determined by the quality of the meta material that we have used,
that is cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate and each of these materials has its own
variation. We will not get the cement, which is exactly identical all the time. Similarly,
we will not get the fine aggregate and the coarse aggregate, which is exactly the same all
the time.

We keep changing over time that is from time to time for a given site, it will keep
changing. Not only the properties of the raw materials, effect the strength of concrete,
but it also dependent on the proportioning. How much cement, how much water, how
much fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, has been put into the concrete mix? So, the mean
strength is largely determined by the quality and the proportioning of the constituent of
concrete. Standard deviation is a measure of the variation of the quality.

So, if we have a site or if we have an experiment where the properties of cement the vary
over a large range, then what we will be expect we will expect that the strength of
concrete also shows a much larger spread. It will also be spread over a large range of
values that is the standard deviation will be larger. Similarly if the proportioning
depending on how we are carrying it out, if the balance that we use or any other method

239
that we use to measure the cement, measure the fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, if that
measurement changes because of whatever reason over a period of time, we will again
get a variation in the strength of concrete. That variation is understood in terms of the
standard deviation.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:09)

So, it is an over simplification, but we must remember or we can say that the mean
strength is related to the quality and proportioning of concrete mixes of or of the
constituent of concrete. We can say that the mean strength is related to the quality and
proportioning of the constituent of concrete and standard deviation is a measure of the
variation in the quality of concrete. I have listed some parameters, which cause variation
in concrete quality, it could be the quality of constituent of materials, it could be
proportioning, which is weighing of constituent, it could be mixing. For example, the
time the method, the mixer, if we mix a certain concrete mix, let us say for one minute.

Another concrete mix for one and half minutes, it is likely that the extent of mixing the
extent of homogeneity, which is achieved is different and that will affect the strength of
concrete it will not affect the strength of concrete to the extent. That it will become very
noticeable and change the mean of the concrete mix the mean strength of that mix, but it
is it may be sufficient to cause some amount of perturbation, which will be measured in
terms of the standard deviation. Preparation of samples, we prepare samples; that is
cubes or cylinders and how we prepare them?

240
How many layers do we fill the concrete in? Whether, we vibrate each layer, whether we
vibrate the entire specimen, the method of vibration and so on. All this effects the
strength of concrete as determined from that particular specimen, curing of specimens.
Usually specifications require that the concrete is stored under water, what is the
temperature of that water misspecification give you certain ranges? Now, within that
range what is the actual value and so on. The testing of the specimen that is the rate of
loading specimen condition specimen is tested.

After it is taken out from water, whether the specimen is tested while it is wet or is it
allowed to dry out and so on. At what rate is the load applied to this specimen? Whether
we are using load control or displacement control machines? What is the stiffness of the
machine that we are using to determine the strength of concrete? All these parameters
will cause a small perturbation in the extent or in the strength that we determine, from
one specimen to another. Each especially at early ages the strength of concrete is likely
to vary much more than at later ages.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:18)

So, all these issues which cause variation in concrete strength are addressed in a
misspecification or in a test method, where it is said that well we will test specimens
which are prepared in a certain manner at a certain age queued in a certain manner and so
on and so forth. But having said all that it is virtually impossible to ensure that all those
conditions we will be met all the time, for any project or any concrete construction. All

241
this needs to the variation in concrete strengths. What happens therefore, is the situation
like this, there are two concrete mixes which give distributions A and B in the recorded
values of strength.

Now, what can we say about the mixes A and B? What we can say is that both mixes
have the same mean strength M, that is their strength distribution that we get is
distributed above the same mean, that is more the mixes have the same average strength.
But having said that the standard deviation of mix A is lower than that of mix B, how do
we say that? Because the peak that we get here in the case of mix A, is sharper, in the
extreme case for example, if there is absolutely no variation in the strength of concrete or
very little variation in the strength of concrete, what do you expect will happen to this
distribution that we are plotting?

We will get in the extreme case, a situation where all the time we are hitting, this mean
value and there is no deviation. That is the absolutely extreme case of no standard
deviation, no deviation, absolutely repeatable quality of concrete. That does not happen
and therefore, from this extreme or ideal condition, we come down to the mix A, which
shows a certain variation and the mix B, which shows a variation which is more than that
of A. Therefore, we can say that the standard deviation of B is higher than that of A. We
can calculate these numbers through knowledge of statistics and proceed further.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:21)

242
Now, let us consider the another mix, C. Now, what can we say about the mixes A, B
and C? The mean strength of A of C, that is this mix is higher than that of A or B. So,
what has happened to the C is that we have something whether we have change the
proportions, whether we have change the quality of material or whatever we have done,
what we have achieved is a higher strength.

That is the mean M 2 is greater than M 1, but mixes A and C have virtually the same
standard deviation. The way I have plotted it this standard deviation and this standard
deviation is virtually the same. We should recall that we have already discussed enough,
we stating that A and B have the same mean, but different standard deviation. That is as
far as A and B is concerned and now we are comparing A and B with C and that is what
we get from here.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:34)

Now, let us try to understand the concept of characteristic strength. So, far we have
discussed how the strength of concrete will vary and how we will try to understand the
variation in concrete strength, the mean strength and the standard deviation. Now, what
are the concepts of characteristic strength? If we plot this, this access is strength and this
is frequency. So, if we plot a given variation of concrete strength, then characteristic
strength f c k that is the normal symbol that designers and concrete engineers use to
address characteristic strength is a strength which is somewhere here.

243
Now, what is special about this particular value? A designer is concerned about a
strength that is exceeded 95 percent of the times or below, which only 5 percent of the
samples taken from what we are saying is the following. If this is the variation, that we
get then fundamentals of statistics, will tell you that the number of specimen is to the left
of the mean that is the number of specimens, which are falling below the mean. The
number of specimen falling to the right of this mean that is those specimens, which show
a strength, which is higher than the mean that will be the same that is 50 percent of the
specimens are more than the mean 50 percent are less than the mean. These are the
properties of the normal distribution itself.

Now, given the fact that concrete strength varies and assuming that it varies in a normal
manner a designer is concerned with a strength here, such that the strength that we get
from the distribution is such that this area here is 95 percent or this area here is only 5
percent. 5 percent of the cubes or specimens fall below the characteristic strength or all
allow falling below the characteristic strength and 95 percent should exceed the
characteristic strength, so that is the whole concept of characteristic strength.

So, the designer has to ensure that for as his design calculations are concerned or the
designer carries of the design process in a manner, that whether it is a beam or slab or a
column or wall whatever it is he’s assuming that the strength of concrete in that
particular element or in that particular member will be higher than the assumed
characteristic strength, 95 percent of the time.

244
(Refer Slide Time: 21:58)

Now, how that is implemented in terms of quality control quality assurance and so on?
That is a slightly different matter and we will take it up subsequently. So, once again
now let us try to understand, how to relate the characteristic strength to the target
proportioning strength in order to get this characteristic strength? That is the strength
below, which not more than five percent of this specimen are allowed to fall. A designer
works with a target proportioning compressive strength, such that the characteristic
compressive strength is met for a given level of standard deviation.

So, basically what we do is or what we need to do is that we need to have the

characteristic strength value and we should target our proportioning exercise that is the
concrete should be proportioned in a manner. That it gives you a mean strength, which is
much higher than the characteristic strength. Now, how much higher should that be
depends on the standard deviation, if the standard deviation is very small? Then we can
proportion a mix, which is having a mean strength pretty close to the characteristic
strength.

On the other side if the standard deviation is large or the expected standard deviation is
large, then we need to proportion a concrete mix in a manner that that the mean strength
or the average strength of that particular mix is much larger than the characteristic
strength. So, this is something which we must keep in mind that as far as the designer is
concerned, the whole design exercise is concerned is based on the concepts of

245
characteristic strength and the risk of being repetitive. I will once again say that the
characteristic strength is the design basis for concrete structures.

I had the strength which is exceeded 95 percent of the times, the mean strength here is
the strength of the concrete mix for c average strength of that mix. That is higher than the
characteristic strength by an amount, which is determined by the standard deviation,
which is likely to be faced at site. Like I have stated earlier, the standard deviation is
related to the amount of quality control or the extent of quality control that we have. If
we have very good quality control on our materials proportioning exercise testing and so
on, we will have a low standard deviation, if we do not have a very good quality control
system in place we have a larger standard deviation.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:54)

Now from statistics, if we have 5 percent of the samples being allowed to fall below the
characteristic strength and the actual strength of the mix is assumed to be normally
distributed, then the mean strength can be taken to be equal to characteristic strength plus
1.65 times the standard deviation. Thus if a concrete mix is designed with a target
strength, which is the mean target strength or the mean strength of that concrete mix,
then it will satisfy the design characteristic strength. Where does this factor 1.65 comes
from?

It comes from the property that the strength is normally distributed and the fact that only
5 percent of the specimens or the values are allowed to fall below the characteristic

246
strength. If that value of 5 percent was to be reduced to 2 percent that is we have a a
structure being constructed, where we do not want more than 2 percent of the specimen
tested to be below the characteristic strength. What will happen to this factor? 1.65 will
become some x, which is larger than 1.65. Similarly, if we have a structure where we
allow for whatever reason more than 5 percent to fall below the characteristic strength,
10 percent. If we allow 10 percent of the specimen tested to be below the characteristic
strength.

Then what will happen to x? x will become less than 1.65 and this discussion you can see
when you look at table of the normal distribution and I am leaving that as an exercise for
you to do your own and see how we get this factor 1.65? How this factor one 1.65
changes? If we allow the value of 5 percent to vary, so may get 2 percent may get 7
percent, 10 percent and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:16)

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(Refer Slide Time: 27:24)

Now, let us come to the next concept which is the water cement ratio versus strength
relationship, much like the discussion that we had in terms of the unit water content and
the slump. Here too we have a variation of water cement ratio and the strength of
concrete, which could be the compressive strength of concrete determine using queues or
cylinders. We can have a variation a b and again to simplify things, we can connect
down the straight line and make it a, b it could be b c d or e f. That is for a given water
cement ratio, we can have this strength or this strength or this strength or this strength
depending on all kinds of factors including age.

If we test the concrete at one day, the same concrete at 7 days, the same concrete at 28
days, we will keep getting different values of strength for the same water cement ratio
except that as the hydration. The strength development sees as the changes in strength
over time will become smaller and so on. So, having said that this variation whether it is
a, b, c, d, e, f it depends on the properties of cement the aggregate. Of course, age and we
need to carry out test using real materials and real data to get the variation of the water
cement ratio and strength over a reasonable range of values. It makes new sense to try to
determine the water cement ratio versus strength relationship in the neighborhood of 30
35 percent water cement ratio.

If the strength required is such that a water cement ratio in that mix will be 50 percent, so
we have to choose a range here, what water cement ratio range is chosen depends on the

248
strength that we want. With that range we have to carry out experiments and narrow
down the variation, that we want or the water cement ratio versus strength relationship.
We must remember that this strength considered is the real strength of the mix and thus
we are talking more in terms of the target strength of that mix. Because it is not the
characteristic strength of the mix, no we are not talking here of the characteristic
strength. We are talking of the target strength that is that strength, which will be actually
obtained, when we test the concrete cubes or we test the concrete specimens.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:13)

The characteristic strength is an independent parameter that extent. Therefore,

simplifying the picture, we will have for a given material as set of materials and that
properties the variation may be taken to be a single straight line for a given age age is not
really a big issue. Because depending on what we are working with, what kind of
specifications, what kind of construction, we can specify the age. We can say that we
want to do to our quality control, we want to have a concrete, which will satisfy the
strength criteria at a given age.

We must remember each point on this line, whether its point here or point here or a point
here actually represents the average of the normal distribution obtained, when testing a
concrete. So, what we are really saying here is that for a given water cement ratio, if we
test a lot of cubes, what will we get? We will get a distribution and strength, which is
something like this. That is what we talked about and this will be for water certain, water

249
cement ratio. This means, if we change the water cement ratio to a value which is lower.
That is if you lower the water cement ratio, we are using water cement ratio one here, if
we choose a water cement ratio two, with which is less than the water cement ratio one,
then the mean will move on that is we will have higher strength.

But that does not mean that we will have higher or lower standard deviation. So, we will
get distribution which will get something like this. This mean here m 2 is higher than this
mean. Here m 1 simple because we have move the water cement ratio, that is what we
have understood from our discussion so far. What this point really represents is this
entire distribution, if we have reduced this water cement ratio and we carry out this
exercise here again, then this point here represents this entire distribution. So, what we
are getting is distributions like this and once we understand this concept then we are
invest this. We know exactly how could we handle this, strength, water, cement ratio. As
I have been stating this strength is the actual strength of concrete mix and the
conceptually the target strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:46)

Now, coming to the last item, that we have for the discussion today as a concept in
proportioning concrete mixes is the s by a. That is the sand to aggregate ratio or the sand
in the aggregate ratio.

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(Refer Slide Time: 33:04)

We have considered this lumped mass model or lumped volume model. I should say for
the different constituents concrete, we have said that this is water, this is cement, this is
sand, this is gravel or this is what I call coarse aggregate, this is what I call fine
aggregate. This is what have considered that a given volume a cubic meter or 1000 liters
or whatever that volume is is comprising of certain amount of water, certain amount of
cement, certain amount of sand and coarse aggregate, with some air whether it is
entrained or its entrapped sitting in the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:52)

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If we isolate the aggregate that is the fine and coarse aggregate and look at their relative
volumes a little closely, what we will find is that s by a representing the share of volume
of the inert part, this is the normal distribution case, where we have a certain amount of
fine aggregate a certain amount of coarse aggregate. In another case if the s by a is very
low, that is we put variedly fine aggregate in the system another lot of coarse aggregate,
then we have what is called a no fines concrete. That is concrete which does not have
any fine aggregate. So, we have basically the air water cement very little fines and lot of
coarse aggregate can you picture that kind of concrete in your mind.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:40)

On the other side, if we have working with a very high s by a that is we are working with
a system where we inert aggregate has a lot of sand compared to the coarse aggregate
then what we are talking of is this we have a lot of fine aggregate and very little coarse
aggregate. Extreme case, what do we get in the extreme case? What will happen, is that
if the coarse aggregate from the system simply vanishes? We get water which comprises
only of water cement and fine aggregate not counting. Of course, the air which sits in the
system anyway and this air is the part of the mortar component.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:30)

So, if we have s by a representing the sharing of volume within the inert part of concrete,
that is between the fine and coarse aggregates, then if we have normal concrete like this
where there is a reasonable amount of fine aggregate, a reasonable amount of coarse
aggregate in the system. If we have very low s by a, we have a no fines concrete and if
we have a very high s by a, we are virtually working towards mortar.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:05)

Now, if the s by a can be used to control the volume of sand in a concrete mix, we will
see this in the proportioning exercise. How s by a is used to control it? But in principle

253
we can imagine that if s by a is taken to be 0, then we have a no fines concrete and if s by
a taken to be one then we have mortar. So, if I vary this s by a in this range, then I can
control the volume of sand in the concrete mix effectively, what does that mean? It
means that we are able to control the mortar in the concrete mix, then we control the s by
a because if I control my sand, if the sand is reduced or it is increased, what is
happening?

The mortar content which is the sum of water cement and fine aggregate reduces or
increases in no fines concrete. The mortar component is only the water in cement in
mortar, we have only mortar, we do not have any coarse aggregate. So, we have moved
towards and s by f, one should the air content we considered a part of mortar. The answer
from my side is yes because given a concrete mix and actual concrete mix where we
have aggregates and so on. Suspended or embedded in a matrix of mortar, we have air
particles sitting within the mortar. So, no matter how we consider the lumped volume
system, as I shown here air actually is distributed over the entire air is actually
distributed over the entire mortar.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:26)

So, therefore air is a part of mortar as far as the discussion in this course is concerned.
Now, the question is how much mortar do we need in a concrete mix? A concrete mix
really look something like this, where we have a lot of aggregates and mortar really is
required to fill this space, the void in the coarse aggregate structure or the matrix and the

254
quantum of mortar should be in excess of this void content. So, given a mass of coarse
aggregates, we know that is arranged that coarse aggregate mass in a certain space. We
will all been contact with each other and this and this here is the voids and mortar should
be such that it is able to fill all the voids.

So, we have effectively a mix we effectively have a measure of the minimum amount of
mortar, that we need in order that we are able to create a concrete. However, in a
concrete the coarse aggregates are not actually in contact with each other as shown here.
Therefore, what will happen? Some of these coarse aggregates will not be there, that is
the way to look at it if the aggregates are in contact with each other, then we get a certain
minimum amount of voids. It also depend on how much packing you do? But in
principle it gives you the minimum amount of voids and that is the minimum amount of
mortar that we need in a concrete.

If we do not have aggregates in concrete, if we do not have aggregates in contact, then

we need a certain higher amount of mortar in order that that mortar is sufficient to fill all
this space for a given volume of concrete. Now, that is the kind of give and take that is
we try to maximize the volume of coarse aggregate in the system, try to minimize the
amount of mortar in the system because if we minimize the mortar in the system, we also
minimize the cement which is the most expensive part of our constituent.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:50)

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So, that exercise of determining what is the minimum amount of cement required? What
is the optimum amount of sand required? That is the kind of exercise, which is part of the
proportioning of concrete mixes. I do not completed the discussion on all these topics,
we are ready to embark on the exercise of actually proportioning simple concrete mixes,
which we will take up subsequently.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:04)

Now, as usual some things that you should think about, I would like you to study more
about characteristic strength and the target strength of the concrete mix and related. How
they are related based on some international or national guidelines? We talked of the
relationship of 1.65 times, the standard deviation added to the characteristic strength to
get the target mean strength, there can be other ways of relating the two. How is this
relationship between the characteristic strength and the target mean strength viewed in
terms of quality control and assurance? I would like you to study more about the no fines
concrete and its applications.

That is the concrete where we have an s by a of something very closed to 0, that gives us
no fines concrete, where is it used? How useful it is and so on. You can study more about
the properties of aggregates, both the fine aggregate and the coarse aggregate and
cement. How these properties affect the relationship of water, demand on slump and the
water cement ratio and compressive strength.

Thank you.

256
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 8
Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 2 of 3)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

[FL] and welcome back to this discussion on concrete engineering and technology. Here,
we are studying fundamentals of concrete proportioning of concrete mixes stages in
concrete construction special concretes and so on, and continuing with our discussion on
proportioning of concrete mixes.

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(Refer Slide Time: 00:35)

What we will do today is to focus on proportioning of simple concrete mixes that is only
those which have water cement fine aggregate and coarse aggregate the mixes. These
have other ingredients like chemical admixtures or mineral admixtures, we will take up
for discussion subsequently.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:59)

Now, before we get started with our discussion on actually proportioning concrete mixes
lets quickly go over some of the things that we have done in the past. We have gone
through the properties of the basic ingredients of concrete that is cement water fine

258
aggregate and coarse aggregate. We have gone over concrete properties like work ability
which is typically measured in terms of slump and compressive strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:23)

We have gone through some of these very important ideas which govern our
proportioning exercise. This is the water slump relationship the characteristics and target
strength for proportioning concrete mixes water cement ratio versus strength relationship
and the importance of s by a.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:43)

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Now, this is the final relationship which we had agreed on slump and unit water content
we have said that for a given set of materials. Their properties, the variation may be
taken to be a single straight line that is there is a particular variation for slump and unit
water content depending on the actual materials being used in a project.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:09)

Similarly, when we talked about that characteristic strength versus target mean strength
for proportioning concrete mixes. We had said that characteristic strength is what a
designers use to design structural elements like beams columns so on. The assumption
that he makes is that not more than 5 percent of the values that are obtained in the
concrete actually will be lower than this value.

The concrete proportioning has to be carried out using what was called the target
proportioning strength of concrete. The target strength of concrete which is basically the
strength of the mix that we used and that has to be determined in a manner that the
characteristic strength criteria is satisfied.

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(Refer Slide Time: 03:01)

We had said that if 5 percent of the samples are allowed fall below the characteristic
strength and the actual strength of the mix is assumed to be normally distributed. Then,
then mean strength may be taken to be characteristics strength plus 1.65 times standard
deviation with the factor, 1.65 coming from the fact that we are allowing 5 percent of the
samples to fall below characteristics strength. Thus, in other words if a concrete mixes
design with a target strength which is the mean, and then it will satisfy the design
characteristic strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:42)

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Carrying on, from our previous discussion we had said that much like the relationship
between slump and unit content the relationship between strength. The water cement
ratio can be taken to be a simple straight line in a manner that as the water cement ratio
increases the strength decreases. Each point on the line really represents the mean of the
normal distribution of strength that we get when we test a large number of concrete
cubes or concrete samples at a given water cement ratio.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:22)

Then, discussing the s by a or the importance of the sand component or the percentage of
sand in the total aggregates that is the total inert material, we had said that normal
concrete has a certain amount of fines as a proportion of the total inert content. If we go
to no fines concrete, we have basically said that s by a will be a very small value, it may
be 0 in the extreme case in which case we are talking of no fines concrete. Similarly, on
the other extreme we have mortar where s by a is virtually 1 that is no coarse aggregate
in the system.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:12)

In other words, s by a is used to control the amount of mortar in the concrete mix and
how much do we need. How much of mortar, do we need in the concrete mix is
determined by the type of coarse aggregate the size of the coarse aggregate, its properties
particle size distribution and so on.

Basically, what our requirement is that the mortar should be able to fill all the voids
within the coarse aggregates. Not only that, since in concrete the coarse aggregates are
not really in contact with each other we have to provide additional amount of mortar so
that concrete comes out as a homogeneous mix in a particular volume.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:59)

As far as air content is concerned we have talked about it and we have said that air is
either entrained or entrapped depending on whether we are talking of air entrained
concrete or non air entrained concrete. In the case of entrained air, that part is
intentionally put in place and particles are very fine and uniformly distributed within
concrete. In this case, entrapped air is present unintentionally and is generally much
larger in size as far as the individual air particles or pockets is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:37)

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Now, from this recapitulation we move on to our exercise of proportioning concrete
mixes where we have to make sure that the concrete satisfies the requirements in fresh
state which could show in the fresh state which could be workability and so on. In the
hardened state which is strength please recall that in the fresh state concrete shows
behavior which is similar to that of a fluid. It can be pumped it acquires the shape of the
mold in which this poured and offers very little resistance to deformation.

However, as the hydration continuous and the concrete becomes more and more solid in
the hardened state the solid material. That means the concrete has substantial
compressive strength, so we have to make sure that mire these properties are satisfied as
far as the proportioning is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:36)

So, functionally concrete should satisfy laid down criteria for the fresh state that is it
should have the required workability air content and so on. In the hardened state it
should have adequate strength and other than that there could be requirements in terms of
durability. For example, it could be in terms of restrictions on parameters such as the
water cement ratio cement content. That could be other requirements like somebody may
say that the temperature rise that occurs during the hydration process should not exceed a
certain number.

The setting time of concrete should not be less than or more than a certain number if I
want to explain let us take the example of setting time. Once again in the case that

265
concrete is being used for a there we would expect the concrete to set faster than a
normal concrete. Therefore, there can be a requirement that the setting time of concrete
should not be more than a certain number or a certain time period.

Similarly, certain cases where we want to prevent the formation of a coal joint that is we
pour some concrete there is something needs to be done at site before a concrete is
poured, again we want to prevent the formation of that coal joint. We may say that the
concrete is not allowed to set in which case the specification will be that the setting time
of concrete should be at least a certain number.

Please remember that the setting time of concrete is not really the same as the setting
time of cement setting time of concrete is determined in a certain different way which we
have talked about earlier when we were talking about the properties of concrete.
Remember and recall that to determine the setting time of concrete we removed the
coarse aggregates and used mortar and use the principle of penetration resistance to
determine that property.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:48)

Now, the objective therefore, of the proportioning exercise is to find the suitable
combination of the relative amounts of sand water coarse aggregate and cement so that
concrete has the required properties in the fresh and hardened states. It meets the
durability and any other requirements that may be imposed on the structure depending on
the type of the structure or the environment in marine environments certain coarse

266
requires certain maximum water cement ratios. The main force restrictions of certain
minimum cement content in certain cases, there may be a restriction on the maximum
amount of cement used and so on, so all those criteria have to be met as far as the
concrete that we design.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:37)

Now, look at this picture once again which is what this course began with concrete as a
multiphase material composite as a multiphase composite looks like. This this is the slice
of normal concrete modeling this we want to go to this kind of a picture. Here, we say
that all these aggregates and sand and cement everything is spherical suspended in a
solution of water and suspended in water and so on. If we lump all these things together,
we have so much of gravel, so much of sand so much of cement and water. That is what
we have talked about all these while that is we have what we have talked about all these
while and now the challenge is to find out the relative amounts of each of these
ingredients.

267
(Refer Slide Time: 11:26)

Now, let us look at this picture once again and this is what sand and coarse aggregate and
fine aggregate everything looks like. Now, if I was to just run a model which says that I
have brought all my coarse aggregate together at one place and it is something like this.
All my fine aggregate is brought here all my cement is brought here all the water is
brought here and all this void space at different places is taken to the air, so this is really
what proportioning the concrete really boils down too.

So, let us take a look at this animation once again, so you can see how the animation
works or what really has the basis for this picture which is a very important picture as far
as proportioning is concerned. It really tells us that this is the amount of coarse aggregate
that we are using this is the amount of fine aggregate that we are using this is the cement
that we are using this is the water and air. Of course, when we do the proportioning we
have a certain procedure, we have follow certain step to make sure that this happens.

268
(Refer Slide Time: 12:36)

Another important picture that we have for as the proportioning exercise is concerned is
this story of the picture and the crow. The importance of this picture is the following in
this picture what we have heard all this while is that there is a fixed volume of the pitcher
that is the volume of this pitcher is fixed. The proportioning exercise as far as concrete is
concerned is really to find out the quantities of different constituent that is sand cement
coarse aggregate such that the pitcher is filled.

This is the sum of the volumes of all the ingredients is equal to the volume of the pitcher
and the properties of the concrete satisfy the required conditions. We cannot just have
water there we cannot just have coarse aggregate there; the combination of the different
materials should be such that when they are held together then the concrete satisfies the
properties. Also, the sum of the volumes of the ingredients is the same as the volume of
the pitcher. Now, to make things easier for us what we do is we work with the one cubic
meter or 1,000 liter pitcher and determine the quantity is in kilograms.

We have to determine the quantities in kilograms because determine the absolute volume
of coarse aggregate or fine aggregates or cement is a very difficult job. It is much easier
to weigh those ingredients and find out the kgs per cubic meter of each of these
ingredients. Having said that, we also need to know their specific gravities so that we can
convert them we can convert the mass to the absolute volume. Then, make sure that the

269
sum of the absolute volumes is the volume for the pitcher and for sake of convenience;
we take the volume to be a cubic meter or a thousand liters.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:55)

So, this is what we are trying to do we are trying to find out how much of each of these
constituent materials is such that the quantities expressed in kgs per cubic meter except
for air of course, but the exercise is quite to an extent volumetric.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:14)

Now, what is the fundamental basis of determining the relative proportions of cement
water fine aggregate, coarse aggregate. The fundamental assumptions or the basis is that

270
for a given concrete mix the slump is determined primarily by the unit water content.
That is what we were talking about when we talked of and we discussed in great detail
the unit water content versus slump relationship.

We said that slump or workability of concrete is determined primarily by the unit water
content and that depends also on the type of materials being used. Then, the strength is
determined primarily by the water cement ratio, so with these two assumptions we
actually gets started and carry out the exercise of proportioning concrete mixes.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:12)

It means in numerical terms as an example is shown here, if we have three mixes 1,2 and
3 and they have water content these values are in k g per cubic meter and water cement
ratio is in percentage the strength is in m p a and the slump is in millimeter. Now, if 180,
200 and 200, these are the water contents that we have for these three mixes and the
cement content is shown to be 360, 360 and 400 as given here. The water cement ratio
for these mixes turns out to be 180 by 360 which is 50, 200 by 360 which is 55 and 200
by 400 which is 500 which is 50 once again.

Now, the assertion is that water cement ratio of 50 percent gives a strength of 35 MPa
and 100 and 80 kgs of water a unit content of 100 and 80 kgs of water per cubic meter of
concrete gives the slump of 80 mm. Then, what we are stating is that the strength in mix
1 and mix 3 is the same as the water cement ratio is the same. So, water cement ratio in
mix 1 is 180 upon 3, 60 which is 50 percent.

271
In mix 3, it is 200 upon 400, both are 50 percent and therefore, the strength values is the
same 35 MPa. However, since the water content in mix 3 is higher than the water content
in mix 1, the slump in mix 3 is higher. Let us say 100 mm compared to the 80 mm that
we had in mix 1.

However, continue from that argument the slump in mix 2 and mix 3 is the same as the
water content is the same. If you look at mix 2 and mix 3, since the water content is the
same that is 200, both these mixes will have a slump of 100 mm of course these values of
100 mm and 50 percent and 35 MPa of strength. These are illustrative values and please
do not attach more importance to them than that the principle being emphasizes that the
slump is determined primarily by the unit water content and the strength is determined
primarily by the water cement ratio.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:55)

Now, let us try to look take a look at governing consideration, once again we know that
the unit water contents slump relationship is linear and the line could depend on
aggregate properties and so on. Similarly, the water cement ratio and compressive
strength relationship is again linear and these lines also depend on factors like the age the
type of cement the amount of cement and so on. Then, a balance between the amounts of
fine aggregate and the coarse aggregate is required for good concrete that is it should
have the just the right amount of the mortar.

272
That is expressed through the s by a, which varies with the shape and size of the coarse
aggregate the fineness modulus of the fine aggregate amount of cement in the mix and so
on. You will recall that fineness modulus is a single parameter which is representative of
the particle size distribution of the aggregate whether it is fine aggregate or it is coarse
aggregate.

We have durability requirements or any other requirements that may be imposed on the
concrete mix in terms of water cement ratio which can be said that it should not exceed
50 percent or 45 percent. Similarly, that can be restriction on the use of cement to be at
least 400 kgs per cubic meter or at most 350 kg s per cubic meter and so on. So, with
these governing considerations, we proceed to carry out the portioning of concrete mixes
that is determining amounts of water cement fine aggregate and coarse aggregate in a
concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:43)

Now, what is the required input based on the air content that we need in the concrete the
slump unit water content relationship. This has to be either given or determined for a
given set of materials and their properties the compressive strength versus water cement
ratio relationship. That again has to be either given or it should be determined in a certain
range depending on the properties of the materials being used.

The required s by a or the mortar content which will determine the mortar volume and
requires other parameters such as the particles has distribution of fine and coarse

273
aggregate fineness modulus and so on. The material properties per say that is specific
gravity of cement fine aggregate and coarse aggregate if we have all this input then we
can proceed to proportion of the concrete mix as we shall see.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:54)

As far as the air content in fresh concrete is concerned that is the first step, so given that
we are trying to work with a 1,000 liters that is the pitcher volume the air content in fresh
concrete is an input. It is assumed to be known for the present and what we are left with
this to fix the remaining volume in the 1,000 liters.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:20)

274
Now, we come to the unit water content in slump requirement, we told we have to know
the required slump what is the slump that we need for the particular concrete depending
on parameter such as the details of the structure. If the structure for example, has a lot of
dense reinforcement we may need that the concrete should have higher slump. If the
concrete has to be placed in a structure, which has very nominal amount of reinforcement
we may be able to make do with a slump which is very small.

So, somebody has to tell us what is the required slump and once we have that this is the
required slump that we are working with we can determine the unit water content based
on the slump unit water content relationship in this manner. So, if we know this slump
here we know that this is the unit water content that we knew this is the unit water
content that we need.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:24)

In other words, what we have achieved now is that we knew the air content earlier now
we also know the unit water content and for water the density being 1 we can convert
from the mass to the volume with relativities. We have fixed the amount of water in
volumetric terms the remaining part of the pitcher is still to be determine how much
cement will going to it, how much fine aggregate and how much coarse aggregate that is
still has to be carried out.

275
(Refer Slide Time: 23:54)

Further act, we now need to determine the cement content and how do we determine
cement content we know the strength versus water cement ratio relationship. We need to
calculate the target strength from the characteristics strength the likely standard deviation
and so on. This is what we have done in a previous exercise and we know how to work
with it that is given a target strength, sorry that is given a characteristic strength and the
standard deviation we can find out the target strength.

Once we know the target strength then we know how much is the required water cement
ratio based on this graph x y or this variation that we have assumed, and we know what
the water cement ratio that we need is. Once we know the water cement ratio, we can
calculate the cement content because the water is already known to us from the previous
discussion on slump.

So, we know the water content we know the water cement ratio and therefore, we know
the cement content now please remember that water cement ratio is by mass water
cement ratio is not by volume. Therefore, once we get the amount of cement that is the
cement content, we really get the mass of the cement that we need in a cubic meter of
concrete and in order to convert this mass to the volume we need to know the its specific
gravity of the cement.

276
(Refer Slide Time: 25:33)

So, going back to that model where we are trying to proportion the thousand liters which
is the absolute volume of the pitcher we already knew the air content we knew the water
content from the slump water content relationship. We now know the cement content
from the water cement ratio relationship with strength the remaining part is still to be
fixed.

That is the part which is the inert material, we should remember that this cement content
that we determine in this example was coming from the strength and water cement ratio
alone. It is possible that other criteria such as durability or the heat of hydration may
govern the cement content. So, it may be stated that this cement content that we get from
strength may be higher or lower than that permitted or required from durability
concentrations in fact that holds for the water cement ratio itself.

277
(Refer Slide Time: 26:43)

So, we will work with those examples as we go along in this discussion now as far as the
determination of fine and coarse aggregate is concerned, what is the crux of the problem?
The remaining volume needs to be divided between the fine and coarse aggregates, more
sand means more mortar content in the concrete or in the matrix and less sand means less
mortar.

What governs the mortar demand the mortar amount or the volume of mortar should be
such that it is able to cover allowable the coarse aggregate and sand to aggregate ratio.
That is s by a what we talked about is used or can be used to control the sand volume in
the concrete depending on the mortar amount that we need.

The value of s by a needs to be adjusted depending on size and type of aggregates for
smaller coarse aggregates a higher s by a is needed. If the coarse aggregate is smaller, the
surface area of those coarse aggregate that needs to be covered with mortar is higher.
Therefore, the volume of mortar is higher this implies that we need to work with higher s
by a arguing complete the other side if the coarse aggregate size becomes larger area of
the coarse aggregate. That needs to be coated with mortar is lower and therefore, we
need a smaller amount of mortar in the concrete mix and in order to get a smaller amount
of mortar we need a smaller s by a.

So, with this understanding we have, now once the sand content is known the coarse
aggregate content is automatically fixed. We could convert from the volumetric

278
considerations to the respective mass using a specific gravity of coarse aggregate and
fine aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:46)

What we have done is that we started with a thousand liters of volume which we need to
proportion first of all we fixed air which was a volumetric measure, then we fixed water
which was a volumetric measure. Then, we determine the cement by weight converted it
to volume and as far as the remaining part of the pitcher is concerned. We divided the
sand and coarse aggregate using s by a and we found a fine aggregate content and the
remaining part was the coarse aggregate. So, this in principle defines the process or
procedure that we follow for proportioning simple concrete mixes.

279
(Refer Slide Time: 29:34)

The basic steps once again are to know the air content to know the water content for the
required workability the required workability itself is related to the kind of construction
that we need to do whether it is a beam or a column with congested reinforcement not.
So, congested reinforcement a plain concrete construction for example, in a dam or a
very lightly reinforced construction which may be for example, in a pavement and so on.

Then, we determine the cement content using the water cement ratio versus strength
relationship the required strength itself is determine from the characteristics strength.
The standard deviation that we may have as far as the inert content or the volume of the
inert materials is concerned that is determined using the s by a concept. We find the sand
content within the total aggregate volume and then the coarse aggregate content
automatically gets fixed, so this inner nutshell is the exercise of proportioning basic
concrete mixes.

280
(Refer Slide Time: 30:47)

We start with a target slump and air content compressive strength since the determination
of compressive strength takes time only the former are discussed in this taken a
discussion. Here, we work with slump and air content we assumed that the compressive
strength issue will be taken care of a new course and if a requirement is there to change
the required water cement ratio.

It can also be implemented proportioning can in principle be carried out once the air
content the unit water content and the water cement ratio and the s by a, these four
parameters 1, 2, 3 and 4. If these four parameters are known, and then the proportioning
can be carried out almost mechanically except of course to determine each of this
parameters there is a lot of effort that needs to be done. There is a lot of data that needs
to be generated there is a lot of understanding that we must have of concrete engineering.
Having achieved the proportion as I have described here we will possibly need to make
minor adjustments which we will also see in our subsequent discussion in the concrete
proportioning that we determine.

281
(Refer Slide Time: 32:13)

Now, let us take up an example a table of the type which is given here is often the
starting point where it is stated that for a given size of coarse aggregate, let us say 20 mm
or 40 mm whether the concrete is non air entrained or air entrained. The air content will
be taken to be two present or 1.2 percent it may be taken to be 6 percent four and half
percent whatever it is. The water content that will be normally required would be about
say 185 kgs or 165 kgs the s by a maybe 45, 36 and so on. So, these are values which are
typically given for a certain condition may be for water cement ratio 55 percent a slump
of 8 centimeters with the sand being used having a fineness modulus of 2.8.

Now, as far as these values are concerned the air and s by a is by volume and water is by
weight that is it is given in kgs per cubic meter and of course as far as a concrete is
concerned. We may need to do chemical admixtures in order to make sure that a certain
amount of air gets entrained in the system as far as this table is concerned. I would like to
draw your attention only to the fact that once the size of the coarse aggregate increases
the amount of water required for that same workability which we are working for
example, at 8 centimeters.

Similarly, much lower that is something which you should keep at the back of the mind
and then start proportioning to concrete mix. For a certain set of conditions, this is the
starting point that is the reference which can be used to initiate proportioning exercise we

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need to adjust this particular values for the aggregate type cement type and so on and so
forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:25)

Now, in the discussions so far we have gone through a procedure for proportioning a
normal concrete mix and learnt what kind of information or input data is required to be
able to carry out that exercise. We are now ready really to work with numbers and see
how this process actually yields a design mix. We are now ready to work with numbers
and try to see how this algorithm or this process works and gives us a mix design.

Let us take the examples of a little let us take the required basic input for a illustrative
example we say that we need an air content of 5 percent a slump 80 mm, we have a
characteristic strength of 25 MPa. Expected standard deviation in strength is 3 MPa, the s
by a given aggregate characteristics that is the part of the size part of the size distribution
of the coarse aggregates and the fineness modulus of the fine aggregate.

The required s by a or a or an s by a with which we would like to start our iteration is

0.36 and the material properties in terms of specific gravity of cement fine aggregate
coarse aggregate are known to be 3.1, 2.61 and 2.63. So, with this basic data, we are now
going to start the exercise of proportioning a concrete mix.

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(Refer Slide Time: 36:02)

Other input that will be required is from the slump unit water content relationship we
need to have water content and let us say that for the required slump the water content is
found between 160 kgs cubic meter. Similarly, given that the characteristic strength is 25
MPa and we knew and we are following a model where the target compressive strength
is determined using the characteristics strength plus 1.65. The standard deviation we get
29.95 or 30 MPa as the target strength and from the strength water cement ratio
relationship the required water cement ratio for this concrete is let us say 50 percent. So,
that is the data which we have to have in addition to the basic requirement.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:04)

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That was in the previous slide and with this information we are now going to embark
upon the process of determining the relative volumes of air water cement fine aggregate
and coarse aggregate as we have been doing. Now, the first thing that is given to us is
that that is 50 liters of air given that the air content is 5 percent by volume 1,000 liters of
the volume of the pitcher.

We have 50 liters of air in the system that is we know that there is 50 percent or we
know that there is fifty liters of air in the concrete continue from there. We know in the
second step that we need a 160 liters or 160 kgs per cubic meter of water from the unit
water content versus slump relationship and for the required slump. That is we have the
air content fixed and the water content known, so we have fixed 160 liters of water per
cubic meter of concrete.

Continuing from that point, we go to the third step where we are now also given that the
water cement ratio is 50 percent by mass which means that given the fact that we are
using a 160 kgs of water, we have 320 kgs of cement. Further, since the specific gravity
of cement is known to be 3.1, the volume that is the absolute volume of the cement that
we have is 320 divided by 3.1 which is the 103.2 liters.

I am leaving it to you as an exercise to convince yourself that the amount of cement

given in kgs divided by the specific gravity will straight away give you liters of the
material that I am leaving out. What we are getting now from here is that we have 50
liters of air, 160 liters of water and 103.2 liters of cement in the system or in that
particular concrete what is left is this volume.

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(Refer Slide Time: 39:13)

This means that the remaining volume that is sum of the fine and the coarse aggregate
which is a 1,000 liters that is what is the total volume this is the volume of the air volume
of water volume of cement. The total volume for inert material left to us is 686.8 liters
and this has to be proportion in the fine aggregate and coarse aggregate given that the s
by a is 0.36, the volume of the fine aggregate is 0.36 multiplied by this volume that we
have for all the inert material.

We get the volume of fine aggregate to be 247.2 and the volume of coarse aggregate can
be either determined by saying that that is the remaining volume that is 1 minus 0.36 is
0.64 times the total volume which is this amount of volume for coarse aggregate. We
could simply say that this was the total amount of inert material available to us and out of
that 247.2 was a sand content and therefore, 686.

Therefore, 439.6 is the volume coarse aggregate pictorially represented, this what we
have achieved. We have the concrete which will have 5 percent of air that is 50 liters of
air a 100 and 60 kgs per cubic meter of water 100 and 3.2 liters of cement 247.2 meters
of fine aggregate and 400 and 39.6 of coarse aggregate. That is the absolute volumes of
different ingredients as far as the concrete is concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:01)

Now, we can convert all this which was by volume to mass that is we multiply this by
the specific gravity here and we get 645 kgs per cubic meter of fine aggregate. Similarly,
we multiply this specific gravity of coarse aggregate which was supposed to be 2.63, we
get 1,100 and 78 kgs per gram, and we get 1,178 kgs per cubic meter of coarse
aggregate. We could convert all this calculations that we have done to a final figure
which will give us 50 liters of air 160 liters of water, 100 and 3.2 liters of cement, 247.2
liters of fine aggregate 439.6 liters of coarse aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:58)

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We can convert all this volumetric to the mass and say that the concrete will have 50
liters of air, 160 kgs per cubic meter of water, 320 kgs per cubic meter of cement, 645
kgs per cubic meter of fine aggregate and 1,178 kgs of coarse aggregate per cubic meter.
What we have really done is converted these volume to this mass using specific gravity
and in the initial part we went from here to here. From the mass of cement that we
determined for a given water cement ratio, we determine the volume of cement again
using the specific gravity, so that is what has been the outcome for the day.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:47)

Here, we have tried to understand the algorithm to carry out proportioning of concrete
mixes and we have also gone through the numerical example of how the procedure was
actually implemented.

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(Refer Slide Time: 43:01)

Now, before we close the discussion we should remember that we set out with the belief
that the proportions that we decide will yield. The concrete that we make will have a
desired properties in terms of slump air and strength, but that may not always happen for
such cases we need to revise the mix proportions and just how we can do that we will see
the next time.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:32)

Having said that, lets go back to recapitulate the few things and do some work on our
own Indian codes for example, IS 456, 2000 talk in terms of a nominal mix and the

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design mix. I would like you to find out more about these, what is the nominal mix what
we have done today, these are procedure for designing concrete mixes.

I would like you to study specifications of concrete which lay down the requirements of
a maximum water cement ratio minimum cement content or a maximum cement content.
We can better understand what are the kind of conditions or applications of concrete
construction where such restrictions are imposed on the concrete in terms of its constant
materials. How is the workability requirement determined for a reinforced concrete
construction, I did mentioned that if we have congested reinforcement we would need a
concrete with a higher slump, but that statement needs to be quantified and different
specifications of world help us determine.

This actual slump requirement for a given level of density of the reinforcement in the
concrete construction which is measured in terms of kgs of steel per cubic meter of a
concrete. We would like you also to study a little bit more about some other methods of
proportioning of concrete mix. Then, we have to run here which was a simple method
based principally on volumetric though we converted the volumetric to a mass based
discussion at the end and with that we content me to an end for today’s discussion.

Thank you.

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 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 9
Proportioning of concrete mixes (Part 3 of 3)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

Welcome back to this series of lectures on concrete engineering and technology, where
we are talking about different aspects of what concrete engineers are expected to know in
the present day- beginning with the proportioning mixes, working with special concretes,
understanding the deterioration in concrete structures, what kind of materials are
available for reinforcing these structures, and of course finally, the maintenance of
concrete structures.

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(Refer Slide Time: 00:48)

We were talking about proportioning of concrete mixes.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:51)

And so far, what we have done is we have gone through a numerical example and seen
how a simple algorithm which is based on some experiments, properties of the constant
materials, and the desired properties of concrete can be implemented, to determine the
proportions of a concrete mix.

Now, the limitations or the assumptions in our example, where that we were working
with the very simple concrete mix, that is only having the basic ingredients- the fine

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aggregate that is sand, coarse aggregate- cement and water. Of course, we assume that
we will have a certain amount of air. So, the example that we used can be used for air
entrained concrete as well as non air entrained concrete depending on what kind of air
entraining at mixture we use or we do not use.

As far as experiments are concerned, yes, they were required because we needed the unit
water content versus slump relationship, we needed the strength versus what a cement
ratio relationship, we needed experiments which will tell us what will be the best or the
optimum s by a, that is the sand content in the total aggregate volume or the total inert
material volume, in order to proceed.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:20)

Now with this background, today we will focus on some analysis of the proportions of
ingredients we obtained in the last class. We will discuss how we can adjust or revise a
predetermined proportion, should there be a need. And we will try to also look at
proportioning of concrete mixes with chemical and mineral admixtures. So, coming to
the first part of the discussion today, which is analysis of the proportional of ingredients
that we arrived at in the last class.

293
(Refer Slide Time: 02:57)

What did we start with? We started with an attempt to proportion an air entrained
concrete. It is air entrained because air content that we have taken is not 1.2 or 1.6 or 2
percent level which is normally assumed for a non air entrained concrete but is much
higher than that which means that we have at the back of our mind the fact that we will
use some kind of an admixture to get this kind of air content. So, we assumed or we
started with an assumption that, well, we want a concrete or an air entrained concrete
which has an air of 5 percent, water content of 160 kgs, water cement ratio of 50 percent,
and then s by a of 36 percent.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:50)

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Now, when we went through that example we found this to be the volumetric distribution
of the different materials- air, water, cement, fine aggregate, coarse aggregate, all these
volumes been given in liters per cubic meter. We also had with us this weight
distribution of the materials in terms of water, cement, fine aggregate, and coarse
aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:17)

Now, if we look at this distribution that we got, cement of 103.2 liters- 320 kgs, water of
160 liters per cubic meter or 160 kgs, fine aggregate and coarse aggregate as just given
here, and the fact that we had 50 liters of air in the concrete. If we now try to look at this
table here, and also keep at the back of our mind the fact that finally the concrete looks
like this. That is the concrete is basically an embedded composite where or a composite
material where coarse aggregates are embedded in the mortar phase. And if there are no
coarse aggregates then we can look at sand embedded in paste, and so on.

Then, if we look at the volume composition of cement, paste, mortar, coarse aggregate,
and so on, let us look at these numbers a little more. Cement is about 10.3 percent by
volume, and about just 7 percent by mass. If we look at paste which is water and cement
together then we get 160 plus 103 which is about 263 which is 26.3 percent. So, the paste
volume in the concrete is just about 23 or 26 percent. But, in mass terms it is about 21
percent, 20.8 percent, and so on.

Mortar which is a very important constituent because that is what is the host for the
embedded coarse aggregate that is about 56 percent. Of course, what I have done with 56

295
percent is, that I have assumed air to be a part of the mortar, and that we discussed in the
last class and the reasons were discussed there that air can be considered a part of the
mortar.

The argument can be extended that why should air not be considered a part of the paste;
well, you are free to do that so long as you know that that is what you are doing that is
assumption that is being made. I am not sure whether there is absolute consensus in the
literature on this issue. So, we are going just by rational system where we say that well
that air is distributed everywhere in the concrete. And since concrete is a material which
we are considering as coarse aggregate embedded in mortar systems, it cannot be with
the coarse aggregate. And therefore, we are considering it to be a part of the mortar. And
that is the logic or the reason that we are using to say that; well, as far as the present case
is concerned mortar is about 56 percent.

Now, coming to coarse aggregate. Coarse aggregate therefore, if mortar is 56 percent

coarse aggregate by definition would only be 44 percent. I mean if you look at the
volume here it is 439.6 which is approximately 44 percent of the total volume. So, what
it effectively now means, is that in the normal concrete and let me assure you that this is
quite a normal concrete. In a normal concrete, coarse aggregate percentage is about 40 to
45, 50 percent. As far as economics is concerned coarse aggregate we would like to
maximize because that is what it gives us the maximum volume. So, if we are able to
push from 44 to 46 percent then we make the concrete mix economical because then we
save cement. So, having understood this principle that we need to maximize coarse
aggregate in the mix, that is one part of the story.

Now, if we keep increasing the coarse aggregate content we have to sacrifice the amount
of mortar. And now comes the other side that is the mortar that we have should be
having sufficient properties or appropriate adequate properties in order to be able to host
that amount of aggregate. Sometimes when we say that the concrete does not have
enough cohesion it segregates, what does it mean? That the coarse aggregate component
falls apart. You can imagine that if you push the coarse aggregate content to a very large
value, there is no way that the aggregates can be held together in creating a cohesive
mass of concrete which can be mixed, placed, vibrated, and so on, to give the required
kind of properties. So, keep these numbers in mind.

296
At the end of it, what is the total inert percentage? What is the total percentage of inert
materials? Inert materials is coarse aggregate and fine aggregate, that is about 68.7; may
be even in some cases 70 percent. So, the reactive part as far as concrete is concerned the
part that reacts chemically is only cement and water, that we have seen when we talked
about the hydration of cement in an earlier discussion. So the inert part is close to 70
percent of the total volume of concrete. And of course, if we convert it to mass, the
numbers are given here.

And, I would like you to take a closer look at them; try to study more literature and see
how they vary from one concrete to another, from one mix proportion to another. And
obviously, if we change the water cement ratio, the water content, and so on, all these
numbers will change. If the water cement ratio is reduced we put more cement in the
system, we have to decide whether we want to keep the mortar same in which case the
sand will have to go down, keeping the coarse aggregate the same; or, we can say well,
that the coarse aggregate go down and the mortar content go up, and so on. So, that is the
kind of discussion that we will have when we talk about proportioning or working with
the special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:38)

Now, let us come to the second part of the discussion which is how do we adjust or
revise a predetermined proportion, should there be a need. What we have done so far? Is
that we have created some numbers which tell us that well? If we create a concrete or we
mix a concrete, we prepare a concrete with those ingredients in that proportion then the

297
concrete should have certain properties that we started with; now that may not always
happen and we may need to revise them, mix that we have determined. So, there is a
need to adjust or revise a proportion.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:19)

And, that need can arise if the concrete made does not have the properties we assumed or
targeted. Or, it can arise if the properties of the materials being used change. That is, for
example, the fineness modulus of the sand changes. A concrete project does not get
completed in a day. It takes several months, sometimes several years. And therefore, we
use materials over that period of time from perhaps different sources. And the properties
of these materials whether it is sand or it is cement they change over a period of time. At
the same time, if you are borrowing or taking materials from different sites or different
plants, those properties could be different. And therefore, there is a need to have a
specific proportions for different sets of material properties. And therefore, that is what
we. So, under these conditions we need to or we may need to change the proportions that
we have determined.

298
(Refer Slide Time: 12:39)

So, getting back to the example that we worked with. We thought that we will get a
slump of 8 centimeters or 8 t mm and a air content of 5 percent, and with this target in
mind we proportion the concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:48)

And, we came to the numbers that we have talked about. Now, for example, we actually
mix the concrete in the lab, and we find that actually we are getting a slump of only 7
centimeters and we actually get a air content of only 4 percent. This is absolutely
possible because we started with the water content. We used an s by a. We used a

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chemical at mixture dosage which somebody told us would lead to a 5 percent air. Now,
depending on the actual properties of the materials used, this might not be sufficient.
And these are the actual values that we get.

Now, what do we do? Because, at the end of it we want 8 centimeter of slump and we
want 5 percent of air. With that mix that we designed, we got 7 centimeters of slump and
4 percent of air. What we need to do is we need to increase the slump. The concrete has a
lower slump by 1 centimeter, the concrete has a lower air content by 1 percent, and both
these have to adjusted. Of course, it is eminently possible that the actual values could be
higher; or, one of them would match, the other would not match, and so on. So, we need
to adjust in any case. So, this is just an illustrative example as to how we need to adjust
the concrete mix.

I would like you to recall that algebraically the mix proportion can be completed if we
just knew the water content, the water cement ratio, the s by a, and the air content. If we
know the air content we fix that, we determine the chemical admixture dosage or
whatever we want to do, assuming that that amount of air will be there. We get the water
content from the water slump relationship. We get the cement content from the water
cement ratio required based on the strength required. Then as far as proportioning the
inert material is concerned we use the, s by a, to find out how much sand should be there
as a proportion of the inert material.

So, somebody without knowing anything can proportion a concrete mix if these 4
numbers are known. This is a simple excel sheet based exercise. However, what is
required of a concrete engineer is an adjustment, is an engineering judgment of how the
parameters need to be changed if the target values in terms of slump air content, perhaps
strength are not met. Strength is something which we are not taking up in this example
because in most cases it takes a lot of time; most cases the strength is given in terms of
the 28 days strength. And therefore, we are assuming that the water cement ratio of 50
percent that we used was sufficient to get the strength. And if that needs to be changed
that two can be changed in a similar example.

Similarly is the case with air where algebraically it is possible to do it very simply but in
order to get the right amount of air we need to play around with the dosage of the
chemical admixture; we may have to change the chemical admixture, and so on. And that

300
is something which is not being covered in this initial discussion on proportion of
concrete mixtures.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:23)

So, now let us carry on, hence go to a table which again has to be given to us and that is
largely based on empirical evidence; the numbers are based on empirical evidence, but
the logic and the reasoning is fairly simple. What it says is that if we want or if we have
an increase of 0.1 in the fineness modulus of sand, what happens when the fineness
modulus of sand increases? Does the sand become coarser or finer? Let me give you the
answer, it becomes coarser.

If the fineness modulus of sand increases by 0.1, then we need to increase the s by a by
about 0.5; we do not need to adjust for water content in the mix. If we want to increase
the slump in a concrete by 1 centimeter, we do not need to adjust the s by a, but we need
to have more water in the mix. And 1.2 percent is just another number which is based on
experience, and that will vary depending on the type of aggregate that you are using.
Sometimes, an increase of 1.2 percent may not suffice; sometimes you may have to
increase water by little more; sometimes you may be able to get away with increase in
the water a little less.

If we need to increase the air content by 1 percent; now, we will increase the air content
by 1 percent using a chemical admixture, a dosage in a chemical admixture. But, the
implications of that increase will be that the concrete will become more workable and
therefore, the slump will increase. Now, in order that the slump increases, to control that

301
what we need to do, is to reduce the water content and that is what is given as a reduction
of 3 percent. So, the 3 percent is an empirical number, but the principle behind it is that
air content increase gives you increase to workability.

And, in order to get the workability back, because we are wanting the workability back at
the same level, but we increase but we want to increase air content; and that is why we
need to or we should reduce the water content. Paraphrasing the argument, if we do not
increase or if we do not change the water content, what will happen is, the air content
will increase and the workability will also increase. If that is acceptability you find, but
usually it is not.

Similar is the case with water cement ratio. Now if we need to change the water cement
ratio by about 4.5 which is 5 percent, 50 to 55 percent, or 50 to 45 percent, and so on,
then we need to correct the, s by a. Please remember that what happens when we
increase the water cement ratio? An increase in the water cement ratio means lesser
amount of cement being used; and therefore, the amount of fines in the system goes
down and we need to compensate that. And in order to compensate that what is the
option that we have? We would like to increase the sand in the system, and that is what is
given here. That, if we increase the water cement ratio by 0.45, we should increase the s
by a by about 1 percent, and so on, so this is the rough table which serves as the guiding
principle for changes in a concrete mix if we have to adjust from known targeted values;
or, which we have to adjust using known values to a desired target value.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:25)

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Now, how do we implement this in our case? What we had was, we would like to
increase the slump by 1 centimeter and we would like to increase the air by 1 percent.
So, what it means is that, as far as the slump is concerned we do not need to adjust, s by
a, but we need to increase the water by 1.2 percent. At the same time, we want an
increase of 1 percent in the air content. What does that mean? The table tells you that we
need to adjust the s by a, by about negative that we need to reduce the s by a, anything
between 0.5 to 1 percent. And we need to reduce the water content by 3 percent. So,
based on this prescription we need to make modifications in our parameters and then try
again.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:22)

So, effectively what we are trying to do is that we wanted 8 centimeter and 5 percent of
air content in an 8 centimeter slump; if this was a centimeters and this was in percentage
then we wanted 8 and 5; we got 7 and 4. And therefore, what we need to do is we want to
increase the slump by 1 centimeter, we want to increase the air content by 1 percent, s by
a we do not need to correct here but for this parameter here air content we need to do
something with s by a which is reducing it a little bit as far as correction in water is
concerned. Slump alone dictates that we increase it by 1.2 percent. Air content increase
demands that we reduce it by 3 percent.

What does that mean? If we just convert this into a table like this what we are saying is
that, well, let us add it up; that is the simplest way to do things. It is a simplistic way; it is
not necessarily the best way, but that is the almost the only way that we have

303
mechanically. And therefore, this 0.5 to 1 has been made 1, and the net result of this
which is basically 0, and a minus 1 is minus 1. We will reduce the s by a by 1 percent,
and the net result of plus 1.2 and minus 3.0 is minus 1.8, that is we will reduce the water
content by 1.8 percent. We will reduce the s by a by 1 percent. And we will do
something as far as the chemical admixture dosage is concerned in order that the air
content is increased from 4 to 5 percent.

With this as a basis now, we do the proportion exercise again and for that water content
has to be now reduced from 160 what we started with, to let us say 157 that is a 1.8
percent reduction; s by a, we used 36 percent in the last example and reducing it by 1
means it will work with 35 percent. We will not change the water cement ratio because
we do not have any information about it and we really do not need to change it in this
example.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:39)

Now, to recall what we have done, an appropriate adjustment will be needed in the
dosage of the chemical admixture to correct the air content. The concrete will be
apportioned afresh. And beginning with this example that we had, we will now work
with the parameters- air content is 5 percent, water content is 157, water cement ratio is
50 percent, and s by a is 35.

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(Refer Slide Time: 24:04)

Now, if we change these numbers and we keep the specific gravities as previous
example, and there is no reason to change those specific gravities because they are the
material properties that we used and the same material is being used in the revised mix,
we get these numbers as far as volumetric proportions are concerned: air is 50 percent,
air is 50 liters, water is 157 liters, cement has gone down a little bit because water has
gone down a little bit. So, cement becomes 101.3. Fine aggregate is 242.1, coarse
aggregate is 449.6. And if we convert it to mass, these are the numbers that we get.

So, this is the revised mix. So, what we have done is we have gone through an iteration
where we started with target slump and target air content values, did a proportioning
exercise, found that the mix was not good enough, we went to a reference table which
helped us change these parameters- the water content, the s by a. We did not change the
water cement ratio this time, but we can do that as well; and we revised the basic
parameters and came up with fresh numbers.

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(Refer Slide Time: 25:19)

Now, what we have to do is, with the revised mix we can only hope that the desired
slump and air content which is 8 centimeters and 5 percent is met. Then there is an
uncertainty about the properties obtained in trial runs being replicated in the field. It is
possible that these exercise, that this kind of an exercise which is done in the lab when
we take the concrete mix to the field the mix is not so robust; that is, with a small change
in material property which is always likely to happen; the aggregate might just be a
shade smaller or just a shade larger, the particle site distribution from one lot to another
lot may change, the cement might change, and so on. How do we ensure that whatever
prescription we have given or whatever proportion we have determined through
laboratory trials is going to deliver at site; it will stand the variations at site which can be
expected.

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(Refer Slide Time: 26:32)

The way to do that is this. If we go to this example what we have done is, with this water
cement ratio this is what we had initially, this is what we had finally, and we hope that
we got the right results. What we need to do, to ensure that the mix is robust and is able
to withstand this minor variations that are likely to occur at site; what we need to do is,
use more stringent criteria during trial mixes. That is to say, if finally, the allowed
variation in the field is let us say 2 centimeters; that is, the requirement is that the mix
should have 8 plus minus 2 centimeters of slump, it should have 5 plus minus 1 percent
of air; and that is as usual way of specifying things, slump, air content, and so on are
extremely variable.

They vary within a certain range; it depends on whether I measure it or you measure it; it
could also vary whether it is measured right now, or 5 minutes later, and so on. So, there
has to be a slight margin or a range which the specification is need to specify. And
usually slump is given in terms of plus minus 2 centimeters for 8 plus minus 2, and an air
content of 5 plus minus 1. Then as far as trial mixes are concerned we should make sure
that the variation that we give in the mix, we tried several times, and the variation should
not be more than 1 centimeter let us say for slump or may be half half percent as far as
air is concerned.

So, what we are effectively doing is, that in the laboratory trails we are following a more
stringent criteria for acceptance, we say that, well. In the field if the margin allowed is 2
centimeters, as far as the lab is concerned we will not accept anything more than 1

307
centimeter. In the field if the air content is allowed to vary by half a percent, by 1
percent, then in the lab the chemical admixture dosage and cement and so on, we should
try to make sure that the variations that we get is not more than half a percent. Hoping
there that this stringent criteria that we have used, even if the site conditions change a
little bit, the concrete will still need the requirements, in terms of the slump and the air
content which are the basic properties that we want to satisfy as far as basic concrete
engineering is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:24)

Now, let us look at another example. So far we looked at an example where we said that
air, water content, water cement ratio, and the s by a, these are the parameters that are
fixed, as far as working out a concrete proportion is concerned. Now, in another
example, we can work with fixing coarse aggregate content at 48 percent. We want at
least 48 percent or atmost 48 percent or whichever way we want to do it, we fix the
coarse aggregate content in the concrete mix. What this implies is that we are fixing the
mortar content to be 52 percent.

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(Refer Slide Time: 30:11)

So, now what we are doing, if this is how we are specifying the mix, then the volume
matrix becomes something like this. That we fix the air, we are given a water content
because now instead of using water, water cement ratio, s by a, and air, what we are now
using is air is given to us, water is given to us, water cement ratio is given to us, but the
coarse aggregate content is given to us instead of the s by a. So, the process, till such
time as cement is been determined will be the same. Air is known, water let us say 175
that will be known, water cement ratio; this is a mass version of this table. So, the water
cement ratio being 50 percent, 175 and 50 percent gives you 350, which gives you 112
liters of air, of cement.

Now, the only difference is here. How do we apportion the fine aggregate content and
the coarse aggregate content? In the, s by a, route we said that well we will apportion this
in a manner that the sand content which is this part, is a part or a fraction of the total inert
material or the total aggregate content- the coarse aggregate and the fine aggregate. In
this example now or in this approach now, we are saying that no that is not what we want
to do. We are fixing this content to be 52 percent and we are fixing this to be 48 percent.
So, the aggregate content or the coarse aggregate content is known to us to be 48 percent.

And, the sand content now is determined from 520, and the sand content is determined
based on the volume of mortar. And the volume of mortar, if 48 percent is the coarse
aggregate, the volume of mortar is 522 liters; from there we reduce the amount of air,
then we reduce the amount of water. So, the sand content is determined based on the

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mortar content; that is, if we know that the mortar is finely 520 liters, the sand content
will be 520 liters minus the air, minus the water, minus cement, whatever is left is the
sand.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:35)

Now, let us come to the last part of the discussion toady which is proportioning of
concrete with chemical and mineral admixtures. We will take some examples on how
this is done.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:45)

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Let us say, for an example that there is an application of normal concrete and is
proportioned using these conditions: air content of 5 percent, unit water content of 180
kgs, water cement ratio 45 percent, and a coarse aggregate content of 40 percent. We are
not using, s by a; we are giving a coarse aggregate content to be 40 percent. Other
conditions dictate that the cement content cannot exceed 320 kgs. There can be all kinds
of reasons for which there can be a maximum cement content which is imposed, and in
this case it is given to be 320 kgs.

Now assume that the following admixtures are available: a water reducer that can be
used to reduce the water demand by 20 percent; so this basically is a chemical admixture
available to us. A mineral admixture with an efficiency of 75 percent; so this is the
mineral admixture available to us. And what we are required to do is, to carry out the
proportioning exercise to meet the above conditions.

So, to retreat the problem, this is the requirement. That is the concrete that we proportion
should have an air content of 5 percent, unit water content of 180, water cement ratio of
45 percent, then is coarse aggregate content of 40 percent. When we say that the unit
water content is 180, what do we mean? We mean that that is the amount of water that is
required in a concrete that will have the required workability. The prescription here is not
in terms of slump of 80 mm or 100 mm or whatever that is, but it is given at a next step
itself that is we are giving the water content. Otherwise, what will be required is that we
give the slump and we give the information relating the slump to the water content.

So, in this case, the slump is not given, the water content is given. So, we need a concrete
of 180 kgs of water, so that it has the required amount of slump. We need a concrete
which has of water cement ratio of 45 percent, so that it has the required strength. Gap
with this is the restriction that the cement content cannot exceed 320 kgs. And of course,
we have these options in terms of chemical admixtures and mineral admixtures available
to us.

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(Refer Slide Time: 35:18)

Just for reference, let us first quickly carry out the proportioning of the concrete as if it
was a normal concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:24)

And, what we will land up doing is that we have a 5 percent air that is 50 percent, 5
percent air means 50 liters. If we look at the mass, it is like this. We have air to be 50
liters, water to be 180 liters or 180 kgs; 45 percent of water cement ratio gives us 400
kgs; 400 kgs gives a 129 liters; and given the fact that the coarse aggregate is 40 percent;
we have 400 liters of coarse aggregate sitting in the concrete which translates to so much

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of coarse aggregate in terms of kgs per cubic meter; and we have the sand content given
here.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:09)

So, if we do this we realize that the mix does not meet the other criteria as the cement
content exceeds the permissible value. We have a cement content of 400 kgs, and this
400 is greater than the 320 which is allowed; and that is where the problem is; what do
we do with that? The cement content can be brought down by either using a chemical
admixture to reduce the water content for the same slump, and the cement content
automatically gets reduced keeping the water cement ratio at the same level. We will see
this, an example just now. Or, we use a mineral admixture to directly replace the cement.
And the amount of mineral admixture, of course, will depend on its efficiency, and that
too we will see in this example.

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(Refer Slide Time: 37:07)

Now, let us look at the option one which is using a chemical admixture. Since the
maximum unit cement content is 320, and the water cement ratio has to be kept at 45
percent, the water content cannot be allowed to exceed 144 kgs. This is the text or a
statement of the problem. We had 180 kgs of water which was giving us some slump x.
With this we were not able to satisfy the cement criteria. And therefore, now water
criteria is not coming from the slump side. The water criteria is coming from the water
cement ratio side and the cement content side. So, the cement content being 320, water
cement ratio being 45 percent, the water content cannot be more than 144.

Now, what we are faced with the challenge that, how do we get the same slump x which
we were getting with 180 kgs of water, with 144 kgs of water plus a chemical admixture,
because challenge is that how do we get the slump x, which we were getting with the 180
kgs of water, using only 144 kgs of water with the addition of a chemical admixture. In
other words, we have to use a chemical admixture that will reduce the unit water content
from 180 kgs to 144 kgs. This is a reduction of 36 kgs or 20 percent. And the problem is
reduced to identifying an admixture and its dosage that will require trial mixes.

So, we already have a chemical admixture which can reduce upto 20 percent, that was
given to you. And we need to adjust its dosage; whether we need 1 percent or half a
percent, 1 and a half percent, without affecting the durability and other properties of
concrete, and we are in business. With 144 kgs of water and appropriate amount of a

314
suitable chemical admixture we should be able to get the same slump, as we were getting
with 180 kgs of water. So, that is the discussion as far as option one is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:32)

And, if you proportion the mix, this is what happens. We have air, we have water is a
144, we have cement which has been reduced, we have the coarse aggregate is still being
kept at 400, we reproportion this concrete mix with 144 kgs of water, and this what we
get, by volume and by weight.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:57)

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Now, let us look at option two. Option two says, use only the mineral admixture and
replace the cement directly. In other words, instead of using 400 kgs of cement which
give us a certain strength, we use only 320 kgs of cement plus we use a certain amount of
mineral admixture, in order that the strength is still remains y; the same strength is
achieved. The strength cannot be compromised. Only thing what is happening is that
instead of cement alone we are using a mineral admixture to supplement the cementitious
material content.

So, what we have done is, we have, we will replace a part of cement by the mineral
admixture. So, in the present case we need to replace 80 kgs of the cement which is 400
minus 320. And given that the mineral admixture has an, and given that the mineral
admixture available has an efficiency of 75 percent, a 106.7 kgs of the mineral admixture
will be needed to be added to the concrete on a per cubic meter basis.

So, we were using 400 kgs per cubic meter of cement. This will now be equivalent to
320 kgs per cubic meter of cement, plus a 106.7 kgs per cubic meter of the mineral
admixture. We need to replace or use 106.7 kgs of the mineral admixture to replace the
80 kgs of cement because the efficiency of the mineral admixture is 75 percent. If the
efficiency was something different then we will need to use more or less of the mineral
admixture. If we are able to identify an admixture, a mineral admixture which has the
same efficiency as cement, then we can replace it on a 1 to 1 basis. Instead of using
cement, we use the same amount of mineral admixture. Typically, the mineral
admixtures that we have in the market, kind of things which are available with us, they
have an efficiency which is lower than 1. And therefore, we need to have more of the
mineral admixture than the parent cement.

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(Refer Slide Time: 42:32)

And, if we do that exercise then this is what we get. We have air, water, cement has been
reduced to 320, 106.7 is the mineral admixture which has been added, keeping this
coarse aggregate at 400 which is what was the requirement, which that means the coarse
aggregate content does not change, the fine aggregate changes to certain amount. We
determine the fine aggregate content from again the mortar volume that still being kept at
600 liters or 60 percent because the basic condition was that the coarse aggregate content
will be 40 percent in the mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:20)

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So, well, now let us compare the options.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:23)

To begin with, as far as basic concrete is concerned, this is what we had and this is what
we found that was not meeting our requirement. The cement content here was higher
than the acceptable or required maximum of 320. So, we explode an option one where
we said we will use a chemical admixture alone to get the water demand down 244, and
then use the same amount of cement, and so on and so forth. Another option that we
considered was using only the mineral admixture. There we let the water demand be at
the same level of 180. We brought, we just replaced the excess cement that we had with
a mineral admixture, and everything else remains the same.

Now, what do we notice when we bring these options together? In all cases, having kept
the coarse aggregate content at 40 percent we have the total mortar content in the mix at
600 liters. There is no change in the total mortar content. That is one thing which you
must remember. And the second thing is that the difference in the paste content,
compared to one it is much lesser in two and the additional space to keep the mortar at
60 percent is filled with fine aggregate.

So, I am not going to discuss this aspect too much. And we leave it to you to look at
these three mixes, and see how the volumetric has actually changed, how the paste
volumes have changed, how the mortar volumes have remained constant and therefore,
the required sand volumes have changed. Now, having said that please also think about
the definition of paste in this context. Basically what we said, paste is water and cement.

318
In the case, when we are talking of mineral admixtures, should the mineral admixtures be
counted as paste or not, or should they be counted as contributing to the paste volume or
not. Well, my answer is yes, because their fineness is comparable to that of cement. If
the any admixture we use is coarse then it will be part of sand and therefore, we will
contribute to the mortar content, may not contribute to the paste content. So, the
definition of paste, of mortar, also come into question when we are working with
concretes using chemical admixtures or mineral admixtures. And I would like you to use
this example as a basis for understanding the concept a little more.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:16)

Now, coming to the end of the discussion today. Just think about, what are the basic
assumptions in argument put forward in working with options 1 and 2 outlined in the
discussion when trying to reduce the cement content in the concrete mix. Even though I
made it look simple, and just reduced the water content from 180 to 144 and said that
there will be a chemical admixture which is available to us which will do the trick or we
replaced 80 kgs of cement by 106.7 kgs of the mineral admixture; we said that well;
everything else will remain the same; the water content of 180 kg will suffice, and so on.
There are some problems with that, and I would like you to understand them or think
about them.

Look at the comparison of the three mixes- the basic, the one with only the chemical
admixture, and the one with only the mineral admixture carefully, and try to see what has
happening with them. Work out an alternative mix where both chemical admixtures and

319
mineral admixtures are used. In the example that we took we reduced the water to the
extreme value that was required from the cement content point of view. In the other
example, we replaced all the cement that needed to be replaced by a mineral admixture;
there can be combinations. So, you can try with bringing down the unit water content by
10 percent and achieving the remaining reduction in cement through the use of a mineral
admixture. I am sure, if you work it out you will find interesting combinations, and then
study them in terms of what is happening to the paste content, what is happening to the
mortar content, sand content, and so on, in the mix.

Thank you.

320
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 10
Pores and porosity in concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

Welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology. In this course, we are
trying to study fundamentals of concrete, proportioning of concrete mixes, stages in
concrete construction, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration in concrete,
reinforcement of concrete structures, maintenance of these structures, and so on, in light
of the developments that have taken place in the field of science, cement chemistry,
admixtures, and so on.

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(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

As for as our discussion on revising the fundamentals of concrete is concerned we are

trying to do and over view of this course, constituents of concrete, cement, sand, coarse
aggregate and water in addition to chemical and mineral add mixtures, properties of fresh
and hardened concrete, hydration of cement and strength development, and quality
control in concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:20)

Out of that our discussion today would focus on a topic which spends between properties
of fresh and hardened concrete, and hydration of cement and strength development. One

322
must remember there in a complex material like concrete is very difficult to classify and
stick to that classification in a water type manner. There are subjects which spend one or
more compartments. For example, hydration of cement is the basis on which strength
development takes place on the basis of which special concretes can be designed, and so
on. Quality control of concrete, spans, constituents, methods, properties of concrete, and
so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:18)

So, the discussion today would be on the pores and porosity in concrete. What we will
talk about is the origin of pores and porosity in the material, and we will talk about the
nature and characterization of these pores, and finally, the measurement of porosity in
concrete. So, this is an outline of what we would be talking about in this discussion.

323
(Refer Slide Time: 02:46)

(Refer Slide Time: 02:51)

Now, beginning our discussion with the origin of pores and porosity in concrete, let us
look at the volume changes that take place when C 3 S and C 2 S which is the tri-calcium
silicate and the di-calcium silicate, they hydrate. Now, these equations here give us the
chemistry of hydration of these products. As for as C 3 S is concerned, C 3 S plus 5.3 H
2 O gives us C S H which is the calcium silicate hydrate gel, and 1.3 times CH which is
calcium hydroxide.

324
So, if we look at the mass, this equation, this numbers here tell us what is the mass
balance involved. From the density considerations of these individual constituents we get
the volume changes that are involved, well, C 3 S hydrates. If we look at this total here,
we have 73.2 cc of C 3 S reacting with 95.5 cc of water which means that the volume of
the reactants is 168.7, and the volume of the products which is given here is only 162.7
which means that there is a net change for about 6 cc as for as the hydration of C 3 S is
concerned, and that is the change of about 3.6 percent. The volume after the reaction
becomes slightly smaller than the volume before the reaction.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:28)

Similarly, in the case of C 2 S we have 130 cc of reactants reacting and finally, giving as
129.6 cc of the products. Here the volume changes much smaller; it is about 4 cc and
which is about 0.4 percent or whatever; and here too the volume after the reaction
becomes smaller than that of the reactants.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:02)

Now, what are the implications of this change in volume as for as concrete is concerned.
In addition to the volume changes that take place on account of the hydration of the
different phases of cement or different solid complexes of cement. See, C 3 S and C 2 S
which we solved just now, are two of the important solid complexes making of the
cement. They are the, to be C 3 A and C 4 F, the tri-calcium aluminate and tetra-calcium
aluminoferrites.

In addition to these volume changes, one must remember that the water added to
concrete is far in excess of that required for the hydration of cement; hydration of cement
from a chemical point of view, or the point of view of chemistry, stochiometry. If we
read different reference papers, books, we would find that the amount of water which has
been sited to be required for the complete hydration of cement varies form say, 18
percent to 22 percent by weight of cement; which basically means that in order to
hydrate 100 grams of cement different people have different values to quote, but the
value of the amount of water required for the hydration of that cement varies from about
18 to 22 grams.

In contrast to that, in concrete, the water added ranges from 40 to 55 percent in most
cases that indeed is the water cement ratio. When we talk of water cement ratio in
concrete what we are talking about is how much water and how much cement is present
in the concrete by weight. Now, therefore, even if we assume complete hydration of the
cement a lot of water remains in concrete after the hydration is over.

326
(Refer Slide Time: 07:09)

This picture here or this set of pictures here shows us the volumetrics of cement
hydration. It is a schematic representation, and should not be taken too literally. If we
have a certain amount of cement, we add a certain amount of water to it; this is the
picture before hydration. Once the hydration starts the cement comprising of C 3 S, C 2
S, and whatever it is, that starts getting converted to hydration products. And, since in
this picture we are talking of an intermediate stage where all the hydration has not yet
taken place there is some unhydrated cement, some amount of hydration products which
are been formed, and some amount of water which is still left. So, some amount of water
has been consumed, and some amount of cement has reacted with the water, and the
hydration is taken place.

Now, given the fact that hydration that is the reaction of C 3 S, C 2 S, and so on,
involves a reduction in the volume. We get this amount of volume here which is
basically pores space. So, the amount of unhydrated cement plus hydration products plus
remaining water which is upto this point here, is slightly smaller than the original volume
which stood at this level. So, this is the pores which have got generated as a result of
changes in volume of the hydration products, or the hydration products occupying just
that shade smaller volume compared to the reactants.

If this hydration continues, or other, as this hydration continues, we finally have a

situation where the hydration ends. And, we do not have any unhydrated cement. At that
point in time, the hydration products have all formed. This amount of pore space which

327
is arising out of the changes in the volume of the reactants and the products has slightly
increased from this level here to this level, as shown. And, this amount of water is the
unreacted water which is still remaining in the cement paste. Cement paste is the material
that we are talking in the about in this picture.

We are talking about water and cement, what happens to them as the hydration goes on
from the initial point to an intermediate point, to a point where complete hydration is
taken place. In that cases, well, there is certain amount of water which is still remaining,
and this is the amount of water which was added in excess of that required for complete
hydration. Now, why was that water added in first place? That water was added to
provide workability to the concrete.

Those are few of carried out experiments, and I will encourage you to do that; if you mix
ordinary portland cement we say about 30 percent water or 27 percent water, you will
find that the dough or the paste that you get is highly highly unworkable. We cannot
really use it the way we would like to use concrete. And, concrete is just nothing but
sand and coarse aggregate added to that paste. Only when more water is added the paste
becomes a little more flowing; and at 40 percent, 45 percent it becomes such that, even if
we add sand and coarse aggregate to it the concrete still remains workable.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:29)

So, having said all that let us take a look at what happens in cement hydration, very
quickly. This is a cement particle surrounded by water, and as for as concrete is

328
concerned we can consider millions of cement particles really suspended as for as
concrete is concerned in a, in water.

If the cement particle is now considered spherical and surrounded by water, hydration
begins at the surface of the cement, and leads to formation of hydration products which
are deposited on the cement particle. This portion here is the portion where you may say
reaction has taken place or the hydration has taken place, and the cement particles has
now shrunk to the size which is shown here, and this is the volume of hydration products
which is just shaped smaller than the cement particle and the water volume together.

For more hydration, that is once these hydration products have been deposited on the
cement particle, water from outside needs to move through the previously formed
hydration products to find new surface for the reaction. So, basically water moves from
outside and finds new surface here. And then at another point in time we may have
situation where more cement has been hydrated. Of course, the model can also include
the idea that some reactions continue to occur within the reacted zone. So, as the water
moves through this layer of hydration products it is possible that some of the water is
also used up in supplementary reactions or secondary reactions within the reaction
products or the hydration products. And, only part of it reaches the fresh surface of
cement and continues the hydration there.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:54)

So, this discussion which is a schematic representation, or a very highly simplified

understanding or an explanation for the hydration of cement is relevant because at some

329
point the reaction will stop; that is, hydration stops. Now, this could be on account of
exhaustion of water. That is, the water depth was available here is finished. We do not
have any water left in the paste or the concrete. Or, the exhaustion of cement; that is the
reacted layer over a period of time will become larger. The unhydrated cement particle
would continue to shrink. And, there would be time when there is no more cement
available for hydration. At that time also hydration basically stops.

There is a third possibility, and that is the reaction products which are formed here, they
acquire properties that make it difficult for water to move through them to the fresh
cement surface. That is, even though there is unhydrated cement here, there is water
available here, but this water cannot move through the hydration products. The hydration
products have a quite such properties; that is they become so dense. And, even then
hydration would basically stop.

Now, what this model brings out is the fact that movement of water through the
hydration products is essentially through the pores spaces within them. How else would
water move through hydration products? We have to have spaces between them, and
these spaces are precisely what are the pores spaces within hydration products. The
hydration products are not solid in that sense. Even at the end of the hydration process or
the hydration reaction there is always possibility of unhydrated cement being left over.
So, especially in the situation like this it is likely that there will be an unhydrated core of
cement left behind which means that the cement is still there, water is still there, but still
there is no more hydration taking place.

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(Refer Slide Time: 16:19)

And that, in the diagram that we used previously is the situation that is shown here. That
the hydration has ended, but that does not mean that the cement has exhausted; there is
some unhydrated cement still left here. But, even in that case, some amount of excess
water will be there, some amount of pores which have been formed on account of
shrinkage of the products or the hydration products with respect to the volume of those
reactants will still be there. So, nothing really changes as for as our understanding of the
genesis or the origin of pores in cement paste is concerned.

It still remains that, it still remains true that the water that is added is an excess of that
required for the hydration. And, at the end of the hydration process on any account
complete hydration of cement, or even if there is some reacted cement left behind, some
amount of water remains behind the concrete or the paste which is unreacted. That water
we having been added to provide the required workability to the material.

331
(Refer Slide Time: 17:38)

And this is what is the picture; that even at the end of the hydration product, even at the
end of the hydration reactions whether it is complete hydration here of the cement or it is
unhydrated cement left behind, this part is still true. We still have this space which is
available to us, or which becomes available.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:58)

Now, as for as this excess water is concerned which is available in the matrix, what
happens to that? It is the removal of this water from the concrete over a period of time
through evaporation, and so on, that is at the root of the pores that are formed in

332
concrete. So, this water which is left behind gradually evaporates. And, this evaporation
of water leaves us with the concrete, and leaves us with the concrete which has pore
spaces, which were otherwise occupied by the excess water. This discussion that we had
about more water being added to provide workability, some of it remaining behind at the
end of the hydration process, clearly establishes that the pore space in concrete will be
higher in cases, though water cement ratio is higher. If we add more water, that is we
increase the water cement ratio, the amount of water that is left behind at the end of the
hydration process will also be more.

And, that qualitatively establishes a basis for the water cement ratio verses strength
relationship. What is a water cement ratio verse strength relationship? It says that if we
increase the water cement ratio the strength reduces. I mean, whether it is linear or not, is
a different matter. But, the strength goes down. And this strength is related to the pores.
And, now we have seen that if the water cement ratio is higher here compared to this
point, the excess water available over in above that required for the hydration of cement
is higher.

And therefore, the pores will be more, and therefore the strength will be less. Because
intrinsically, because strength is related to porosity through an expression which is
something like this, which says strength S is equal to S naught times the exponential of
minus k times p, where p is the porosity, k is a constant, and S naught is the intrinsic
strength of the material. Now, this is something which we will deal with more when we
talk about the strength of concrete, not so much when we are talking really about the
porosity today or the pores and the genesis. But, yes, through this discussion we have
established a qualitative reason for the decrease in strength as the water cement ratio is
increased.

333
(Refer Slide Time: 20:42)

Let us take an illustrative example. If we add 180 kgs of water per cubic meter, and that
is a normal water content as for as concrete is concerned; if we use 400 kgs of cement
with that, and if we assume that 20 percent by weight of cement is the amount of water
that is required for complete hydration; this value becomes 80 kgs because we are using
400 kgs of cement, 20 percent of that is 80 kgs. So, 80 kilograms of water will be
consumed, and the 100 kilograms, the 100 liters of water will be left behind.

In another situation, if for the same cement content we have added 200 kgs of water
which means that the water cement ratio has increased; there is more water, the mix is
more workable. The amount of water that is required for the hydration is still the same
because we have not changed the cement content. We still need only 80 kgs for
hydration. The amount of water which is left behind is 120, instead of 100. So, this will
finally have more pore spaces because in this case 100 liters of water will escape, in this
case 120 liters of water is available for escape.

334
(Refer Slide Time: 22:09)

Now, what this example tells us is that as much as the 100 liters of water is available for
escape in a concrete containing 180 kgs of water and 400 kgs of cement per cubic meter.
And, that is as much as 10 percent of the volume of concrete. We proportion the concrete
for a 1000 liters that is 1 cubic meter. And, if in this 1 cubic meter or 1000 liters, there is
a 100 liters of water which is available to escape; that is the huge amount of water which
is available to escape. Well, whether all of it escapes, whether all of it can escape, and so
on, is a different story.

Even if the water remains in the concrete, it can at best be said that that concrete is one
which has pores saturated with water. The concrete still has pore space. So, the fact that
water is present in those pore spaces does not take away from the fact that pore spaces
have been formed; that space is not solid hydration products. Of course, as I said just
now, not all excess water may escape, being trapped between layers of hydration
products, and so on.

The bottom line is, the pores in concrete are not negligible. The extent of porosity in
concrete is not something which can be ignored. It has to be something, or it is
something which needs to be studied. It is something which needs to be better
understood, and that is what our focus is today.

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(Refer Slide Time: 23:53)

Now, this is a picture of how people try to model these pores and pore structures. These
here are large aggregates; they could be sand particles for all you know; it really does not
matter. As for as cement matrix or cement paste matrix is concerned the white portion
here is all cement paste, and this is what becomes what is shown here in this detail. There
are hydration products, and there are pore spaces within the cement matrix.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:34)

Another model by another researcher is shown here where there are aggregates, there is
cement paste, there is free water, there are empty pores, there are saturated pores, and so

336
on. And, this here is some kind of a representation of the different phases- there is
aggregate, there is unhydrated cement, there are hydrated cement, there is chemically
bound water, there is gel water, free water, empty pores, and so on.

So, beginning from this point onwards, this is cement paste; unhydrated cement does not
count in cement paste; and it depends on the definitions that we take. Free water and
empty pores have been called pores in this reference. As for as this side is concerned it
says evaporable water and non-evaporable water; some non-evaporable water is that
which is chemically bound. There are hydration products which holds certain amount of
water within them which is chemically bound. And, that chemically bound water cannot
easily escape, but the other can escape.

So, once we understand this kind of a model, or this kind of a schematic representation
of what we are talking about, we are prepared to embark on a more detail discussion of
pores and porosity. Let me also show you this piece of concrete once again. And, what
we have been showing through this pictures just now is the blow up or a very highly
magnified view of portions such as this, where there is aggregate, there is a matrix. And,
the pores that we are talking about is the pores in this matrix, because it is in this matrix
that we originally had water and cement.

And, this is where the hydration is taken place; this is where the hydration products have
been formed; some of which were slightly slightly smaller when compared to the
reactants. This is where there is excess water which is trapped. Some of it is trapped
within the reactions products and has not escaped. Some of it has already escaped, and so
on and so forth. So, keep it in mind that this is the small area that we are talking about,
when we are talking about pores and porosity in concrete.

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(Refer Slide Time: 27:24)

Now having done this discussion on the origin of pores and porosity in concrete, let us
try to understand a little bit about the nature and characterization of pores in this
material.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:35)

This is a picture that we have seen in the fog, and is nothing but an idealization or a
schematic representation of the piece of concrete that I actually showed you. We have
aggregates here, we have cement paste here, and the cement paste is shown here which
shows CSH and all kinds of hydration product sitting here, and there are pores within the

338
HCP which may or may not be filled with water. And, of course, there is some water
which could be sitting within the hydration products such as here, which has been called
chemically bound water. In addition to these pores in the hardened cement paste, there is
also a transition zone which is around these coarse aggregates which has properties
which are different from the main HCP, and that has another kind of pores space, and
that pores space varies only from the point of view of size.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:50)

Now, this is another picture of the evolution of pore spaces and hydration of cement. We
have unhydrated cement particles suspended in water. Gradually the water in the cement
begins to react; hydration products begin to form; we reach a stage like this; and then
finally, we reach a stage like this. There is some unhydrated cement which is shown
here. And, there are pores spaces within the hydration products, and so on and so forth.

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(Refer Slide Time: 29:20)

If we look at the pores in concrete, we look at literature, we find that the pores in
concrete can be divided into 5 clauses on the basis of size- there is entrapped air, there is
entrained air, capillary pores, gel pores, and intracrystalite pores. And, these pores or
these pores spaces are vary in size. As for as entrapped air is concerned it could be as
much, or it could be as large as a millimeter or more. An entrapped air is precisely what
is very dangerous because the pore size is very large. It is air which is not intentionally
entrained.

When it comes to entrained air, the size is much smaller; and that is the kind of size that
helps us, atleast to some extent in getting more desirable properties. Capillary pores are
smaller than that, gel pores are even smaller, and intracrystalite pores are the tiniest of
the lot.

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(Refer slide Time: 30:27)

If we look at the pore size distribution within concrete, again it is a same picture-
entrapped air, entrained air, capillary pore, gel pores, and somewhere here would be the
intracrystalite pores. We will study it a little bit more in detail a little later, that most of
the space in concrete as for as pore space is concerned, is occupied by capillary pores.
And therefore, it is important for us to understand the evolution of these pores as it goes,
as it happen; it is important for us to understand the evolution of these pores as it
happens through the hydration.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:06)

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This is what another picture showing the different pores, different terminologies- there
are coarse pores, there are macro capillary pores, meso capillary pores, micro capillary
pores, meso gel pores, and micro gel pores. So, what it really shows is that the porosity
or the pores in concrete have attracted the attention of lot of researchers. And, they have
used different tools to examine these pores, determine their sizes, try to understand their
genesis and their properties, and try to give them names.

So, it is not really the that names are important as for as this discussion on concrete
engineering and technology is concerned, we are more interested that you are introduced
to these ideas which are becoming so much more important in the modern de concrete
technology. It is impossible for a modern de concrete engineer to be totally ignorant of
some of these ideas. This picture here is nothing but a concrete slice because c coarse
aggregate gravel here, there is sand particles here, and so on. And, what we are studying
on this side, here, is all hydrated cement based kind of structure. So, this a very
interesting dimension to concrete engineering of the twenty first century, the modern
concrete engineering.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:44)

Entrapped air is unintentional air in concrete, entrained air is intentional air through
chemical admixtures, capillary pores- they exist within the cement paste and aggregate
interfacial zone, the gel pores exist with the gel in the hydration products, and
intracrystalites- they exist within the gel.

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(Refer Slide Time: 33:04)

Now, this is an illustrative example of the kind of pore space that exists within concrete.
I am going to use this example to illustrate several concepts of pores and pore sizes in
concrete. If we take a pore structure, A, which is shown here, the model pores are
cylindrical; that is, there is a diameter associated with them, and there is a volume
associated with them. So, the diameter of these pores is the largest; the diameter of these
pores is smaller; and this is the smallest.

The volume for a cylinder, we know is related to the diameter and the length. And, if
there are more than one cylinders we can multiply this by a number n, to get that total
volume. Now, in this case, we can try to determine the volume of these pores which are
the largest, the volume of these pores which are slightly smaller than that, and the
volume of these pores which are the smallest, provided we know the numbers and we
know the lengths.

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(Refer Slide Time: 34:25)

If we have pore diameters D 1, let us say the total length corresponding to that is L 1, the
total number corresponding to that is N 1, the volume associated with that would be V 1.
And, V 1 would be related to this diameter, length, and the numbers. Similarly, we can
have an expression for V 2 and V 3. And, this is a schematic of these volumes and the
diameters, that there is a V 1 which is associated with D 1, there is a V 2 associated with
diameter D 2, and the V 3 which is associated with D 3. The total pore volume in this
system is V 1 plus V 2 plus V 3. So, we have a pore system or a pore structure, A, which
has diameters of pores D 1, D 2, and D 3. The individual volumes of pores of these sizes
is V 1, V 2 and V 3. And, the total pore volume is V 1 plus V 2 plus V 3. So far, so good.

Now, if we consider a similar structure which is slightly different, let us say, B. And
there the relative volumes of pores having the same diameters, the same lengths, but the
volumes are different. And, this can happen if we just change the number of those pores.
Initially we had N 1, N 2 and N 3, and if it becomes and if that becomes M 1, M 2, and
M 3, then the volumes will change. And for the, and for the sake of illustration I have
made it V 2, V 3, and V 1. Now, how that picture is represented here, is that now for
pores having a diameter D 1, the volume involved is V 2; for the pores where diameter D
2, the volume is V 3; and the pores with the diameter of D 3 has a volume of V 1. In this
case also the total pore volume is V 1 plus V 2 plus V 3.

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(Refer Slide Time: 36:42)

Now, if we compare these 2 pore structures, A and B; let us recall what was A. A is a
situation or a pore system where D 1, D 2, and D 3, have the lengths and the numbers of
pores such that the volumes are V 1, V 2, and V 3. In the pore system of B, the numbers
have been so adjusted with the same length that the pore volumes for D 1, D 2, and D 3,
have now become V 1, V 2, and V 3, as shown here. So, D 1 has V 2, D 2 has V 3, and D
3 has V 1. Now, if we are asked to compare these 2 pore structures, what are the kind of
comments that we can make. The first thing is that the total pore volume in both cases is
V 1 plus V 2 plus V 3. So, there is no change in the total pore volume of the 2 pore
structures. So, the pore structures are the same as for as the total pore volume is
concerned. However, in A, the large sized pores occupy a large volume; large size pores
because D 3 is the largest pore size. And, in A, D 3 has a volume V 3 which is the
largest.

So, if we want to calculate a percentage of volume contributed by the larger pores, it will
be the largest as far as the larger pores are concerned for A, whereas, for B, the largest
volume is occupied by the medium sized pores. The largest volume here is V 3, of
course, that is the way we have defined; that is the way we have modeled. That is now
contributed by pores which are medium sized. In A, the small sized pores occupy the
least volume. That is, the contribution, the relative contribution of the small pores as for
as A is concerned is the least. Compared to that, in B, the large sized pores occupy the
least volume. So, we can make any such statement. We will have to study this pore sizes,

345
we will have to study the relative contributions, and then we can make a statement as to
how one pore structure is different from the other.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:31)

Now, how we do understand these concepts in the context of concrete, where the pore
structure evolves as a result of the hydration of the cement, not all cement is hydrated at
the end of the day, concrete is prepared with the different water cement ratios which
leads to a varying amount of excess water, cements have varying chemical compositions
and therefore their hydration products need not be the same.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:05)

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Basically what we use in concrete is 2 parameters to characterize the pore structure- the
total pore volume and the pore size distribution, the differential pore volume.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:22)

In our discussion today we have talked about total pore volume and the pore size
distribution, what we have not talked about is the connectivity of these pores. Now, if we
look at this slide once again, it shows the different diameter pores, we must understand
that we showed them as not connected. The connectivity of these pores is a very
important idea that is important for us to keep at the back of our mind which is central to
understand any pores system or any porous material. It is also important to understand
the connectivity facilitates movement of material within the pores.

So, stand alone pores which are not connected to the pore spaces are not particularly
harmful, are not particularly harmful as for as movement of deleterious material within
the pore structure is concerned. It is only when the pores are part of a continuous system
that they become harmful from a durability point of view as for as concrete is concerned.
So, these are some things which we will talk about later.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:44)

As for as porosity is concerned, now porosity is a measure of the void space in a material
and refraction of the volume of voids which is V v, over the total volume V t. If we have
a material which is a total volume of V t, which is a consolidated pores space of V v,
then the porosity of this material will be V v upon V t. We must remember that this V v
is a consolidated pore space which we have put here. Actually what could be happening
is that, as far as this material is concerned there is a total volume V t and there are pores
of different sizes which are which are present in this material, and they are all
contributing a little bit towards this volume of the voids. And, they have to be continuous
in order that they become part of a continuous pore system.

Porosity therefore will be defined in terms of cc per cc, or cc per gram. So, in any case,
the pore space will be defined in terms of volume. It could be defined in terms of a
volume percentage of the pores to the volume of the material, or it could be defined as
volume space of pores to the mass of that material. It can be expressed as a ratio which
would be between 0 and 1, or a percentage which would be between 0 and 100.

348
(Refer Slide Time: 43:16)

So, having completed our discussion on the nature and characterization of pores and
concrete, we need to talk a little bit about the measurement of porosity in concrete, and
that is something which we will do in the next discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:33)

We will close the discussion today with some homework, and that could include study of
hydration reactions from the point of view of associated with volume changes, what we
gave examples; we did give, we did give 2 examples of C 3 S and C 2 S hydration. I

349
would like you to look at those hydration reactions a little more closely, and also try to
understand what is happening with C 3 A and C 4 F.

We could read about the pore structure of rocks. After all, rocks have their own porosity,
except that in the case of rocks the porosity is does not evolve over time, the weight
evolves with concrete. It does evolve with time because the rocks are formed under
different processes and the pores spaces of different rocks are different. So, that is
something we would, so there is something which would be interesting to compare, the
porosity in pore structure of rocks verses that of concrete which is an artificial rock.

We could read about available hydration models from the point of view of evolution of
pore structure in cement concrete. There are different hydration models available, as far
as simulating the hydration of cement is concerned. These models have been developed
with different objectives. Sometimes they have been developed in order to understand,
what is the best size distribution of particles of cement, in order to ensure maximum
hydration. They were developed to study the heat liberated, and so on. But, we could also
study it from the point of view of volume changes and evolution of pore structure.

And now assuming that concrete has pores of different sizes, we could study the
relationship between the different properties of concrete- that is strength, shrinkage,
permeability, durability, and so on, to the different sizes of pores present. May be we will
find that the larger sizes contribute to something, the smaller sizes are more important for
some other property, and so on. With this we come to an end of our discussion.

Thank you.

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 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 11
Porosimetry – Measuring Pores in Concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:20)

[FL] and welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology. In this series
of lectures, we are trying to revise fundamentals of concrete; talk about proportioning of
concrete mixes, stages in concrete construction, special concretes, deterioration in
concrete structures that we see around us, reinforcement of concrete structures and their
maintenance.

351
(Refer Slide Time: 00:43)

So, as part of the discussion on revising the fundamentals of concrete, in the last
discussion, we were talking about pores and porosity in concrete. And we had for
convenience, divided the discussion into origin of pores and porosity; nature and
characterization of pores, and finally measurement of porosity in concrete. Now, out of a
three, we had more or less completed the discussion on the origin of pores and their
nature and characterization.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:14)

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And before we proceed further, we can just quickly recapitulate as to what went on at
that time. We talked about the fact that, the volume of the products as far as hydration is
concerned is slightly lower than that of the reactance. And that is one of the reasons why
we have blank spaces or blank pores or voids within the concrete system.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:42)

Another reason was the fact that we use excess water compared to that which is required
for hydration of the cement. And that excess water once it remains in the concrete matrix
after the hydration has been completed tends to escape through evaporation and so on if
the structure is exposed to the atmosphere. And in any case, the space that is occupied by
water is susceptible to finally becoming void space. Even in cases where the structure is
under water and is not likely to be dried up, the volume of voids occupied by water
surely is not solid hydration products. And at the end of it, is one form of porosity. At
best, we can call it concrete, which is saturated with water as far as the pores are
concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 02:43)

This is the diagrammatic representation, which we saw last time of water and cement
hydrating, going for an intermediate stage, and finally, the end of hydration. Here we
have of course, shown complete hydration of cement and there is no cement left. But,
there is always a possibility that we talked about last time that, some cement may still
remain at the end of the hydration process. In any case, this space here which is occupied
by water or the pore space generated on account of dimensional changes or the volume
changes on account of hydration products being slightly less in volume compared to the
reactance; this is space is what is contributing or causing the porosity in concrete. And
this space increases as more water is being added, that is, as the water cement ratio is
increased. And that is partly the reason why the strength goes down as water cement
ratio is increased. It is the increase in pores space that causes this decrease in the
strength.

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(Refer Slide Time: 03:50)

And then we had looked at some of these models, which have been proposed in terms of
looking at the pores spaces. And as far as pores spaces are concerned, we have talked
about chemically bond water, gel water, free water and empty pores. And all of which
essentially, is one form of porosity or the other.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:15)

We had also looked at five class classification of pores in concrete based on sizes –
entrapped air, entrained air, capillary pores, gel pores and intracrystalite pores. And
depending on the nature of these pores, their original genesis, their sizes are quite

355
different. And the pore sizes in concrete could range from 0.1 nanometer to about a
millimeter and so on. So, there is a huge range of pore sizes as far as concrete is
concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:50)

And, this here is the pore size distribution of the different kinds of pores – entrapped air,
entrained air, capillary pores, gel pores and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:00)

And, we had constructed or considered an illustrative example, where pores of different

sizes, different in number and contributing to porosity.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:17)

And, we had talked about a situation, where if these pores were to be analyzed in terms
of their contribution to a total pore volume in the system, there could be two cases: A
and B; where even though the total volume could be very much the same, the actual
distribution as far as the contribution from larger pores could be different.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:39)

And, we had talked about the fact that parameters that characterize pores size distribution
as far as concrete is concerned. The both commonly used parameters are the total pore

357
volume and the pore size distribution, which is often represented as the differential pore
volume; that is, how much is the volume of pores of certain sizes or different sizes.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:01)

Now, to summarize as far as pores and cement based materials are concerned, cement-
based building materials such as concrete and mortar are porous with a complex internal
pore structure. Hydrated cement paste – hcp consists of capillary pores, which have a
large variation in size due to cement particle spacing in the water-cement suspension. We
should remember that, at the end of it, the paste is nothing but a suspension of cement
particles in water. Of course, it is not a suspension, which is of fluid consistency; very
often it is a dough-like consistency. But, it is the suspension nonetheless. So, depending
upon the characteristics of these cement particles as they are suspended in water, we
have different kinds of pore systems that evolve.

If we use chemical admixtures to break the flux that form of the cement particles in the
suspension, the characteristics of hydration change and so does the pore size distribution.
So, these are the kind of things that we need to remember when we talk about pores,
porosity and the pore size distribution of concrete. There are smaller gel pores, which are
interlayered in the calcium-silicate-hydrate or other hydrates. There are spherical air
voids, which are larger in diameter naturally or artificially introduced. Artificially
introduced air, which is entrapped air, tends to be larger particles; whereas, entrained air
is smaller particles.

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(Refer Slide Time: 07:46)

And, if we continue the discussion; in the neighborhood of the aggregates a more porous
interfacial transition zone is present. This is something which we have talked about on
several occasions that, if we look at an aggregate, if we look at a concrete closely, there
is aggregate particles sitting here, which is surrounded by cement paste. And the
properties of the cement paste in the immediate neighborhood of the aggregate,
especially at the bottom of aggregate, where the bleeding water from the paste tends to
accumulate. And the properties of the portion here, which is the main cement paste or the
main body cement paste – they are slightly different. And if these properties are
different, they manifest themselves in the changes in the pores size distributions or the
pore structure in these two places.

Presence of pores in the concrete is at the root of almost all durability related problems,
which can arise out of ingress and movement of deleterious ions or materials through
pore space. And this includes materials such as carbon dioxide, chloride ions, water and
so on. So, it is all… So, it is the movement of these ions through the pores that cause
most of our durability problems. And therefore, it is important that, as concrete
engineers, we understand the characteristics of the pores in the pore size distributions
within the concrete. At the end of the day, concrete is not as solid as we may like to
believe.

359
(Refer Slide Time: 09:32)

Now, how does hydration come into picture as far as changes in porous and pore size is
as concerned? Hydration leads to the formation of more and more hydration products and
the consumption of the water. So, if there is a system, where hydration is stopped
intermediate, then there is more water available to evaporate. And therefore, the
porosities will be higher. The process continues over long period of time. And that is the
reason why the pore sizes and the pore distributions – they evolve over a longer period of
time as far as more cements are concerned. As far as pores and concrete are concerned,
hydration has two implications. It leads to a reduction in the total pore volume. So, as
more hydration products are formed, they are deposited within the system; and the total
amount of space available for pores becomes lesser. So, the total pore volume changes; it
reduces. And the second thing that happens is the refinement of pores; that is, a shift in
the pore size distribution. Refinement essentially refers to larger diameter pores being
transformed into smaller diameter pores due to formation and deposition of more and
more hydration products.

So, one way of looking at this discussion could be to think in terms of a cylindrical pipe
with reactive walls. So, basically, as more and more hydration takes place, because the
walls of the pipe are reactive, hydration products will continue to be formed and the
diameter of the pipe reduces. So, there are two things that happen. One is the diameter
reduces, and therefore, the total free space or the pore space in the pipe reduces. And that
has the implication in terms of also changing the size distribution of pores.

360
(Refer Slide Time: 11:40)

One… Other concept that is very important as far as pores and porosity in concrete is
concerned is that of connectivity of these pores. As far as durability related problems are
concerned, it makes a difference whether the pore system in concrete is continuous and
connected or it is discontinuous. Only in the event that the pore system is continuous and
connected, can the deleterious materials such as carbon dioxide, chlorides and so on,
move freely from one place to another as far as concrete is concerned, as far as hardened
concrete is concerned? If the pore system was discontinuous, then the freedom or the free
movement of this deleterious material is highly restricted; and we have less problems
even if the total pore volume was the same. Now, this (( )) concept of connectivity is
very central to our understanding of any porous material. And as I discussed or explained
just now, it is the connectivity that facilitates movement of material within the porous
material.

Now, having completed the discussion of the origin and the nature and characterization
of pores, we come to the discussion on measurement of porosity in concrete. Now… And
that is the central theme as far as our discussion on the subject today is concerned.

361
(Refer Slide Time: 13:12)

Porosimetry is used to include measurements of pore size, volume, distribution, density,

and other porosity-related characteristics of a material. So, as far as the pores in a porous
material, is concerned, it could be characterized by size, volume, distribution, the
density, and so on and so forth. So, any method that helps us better understand these
characteristics of a pore system, is porosimetry.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:49)

And, one example that we have is mercury porosimetry. And that is the method that we
will talk about today. Now, let us consider an illustrative example as shown here.

362
Consider a pore system as shown with diameters ranging from d 1 to d 4. So, we have
pores of diameters d 1 here, d 2, d 3 and d 4 such that obviously, d 1 is the largest
diameter and d 4 is the smallest. Now, if this was the solid phase and this here
represented the porous space, there is this model of the pore system of this particular
sample or specimen whatever we may call it.

Now, in a 2-d representation, the area and therefore, the legs; now, if we have diameters
d 1 and if we have the pores measuring d 1 in diameter over a length l 1; we have pores
of d 2 over a length l 2; d 3 for l 3; and d 4 for l 4. The total area here, that is, this entire
area – this essentially represents the porosity of the pore system. Through the back door
without explaining it too much, I have slipped in couple of concepts here; I have slipped
in the concepts that, the pores are different in number. If we look closely at this picture,
there are these lines shown here, which essentially represents let us say the number of
pores. And their total lengths have been lumped at one place. The second thing which I
have done is that, I have put the largest diameter pores close to the end. And as we go
inside, the pores have been taken to be of smaller and smaller diameters. Now, the
importance or the implications of this model or this assumption will come out later as we
talk more.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:59)

The principle of mercury porosimetry; and that is the method that we are talking about is
that, mercury is forced into a pore measuring a diameter d over the length l 1 assuming

363
that this is the total length of the solid. Now, this here shows the force equilibrium that
we have. And finally, we have a relationship, which says that, the diameter of the pores
that is being filled with mercury is inversely related to the pressure that is applied from
outside. If we remember this, I think we will follow the discussion a lot more easily.
Mercury is being forced into this pore; and the pressure that is required to force the
mercury into the pore system is inversely proportional to the diameter. So, if we
somehow are able to get a relationship between the diameter intruded and the pressure
required, then we would be able to study the pore size distribution in material such as
this. We have made another assumption that, the pores are essentially cylindrical in
nature. And that is the assumption that we also saw in the previous slide when we talked
in terms of diameters of different pores – d 1 to d 4 – all arranged in a certain manner.

Now, if we are able to measure the pressure and the volume that is intruded, we would be
able to calculate the diameter of the pore in the system. And as a result, the pore volume
with certain diameters can be obtained. And as we have said, when the pore diameters
are small, higher pressures are required to cause intrusion of mercury.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:56)

Now, if we remember this part, let us look at how the system actually operates. What we
do is, we place samples of concrete pieces, which are measuring less than a centimeter
by a centimeter by a centimeter. So, they are really small pieces. We put them into this
cell, what is also called a penetrometer. Fill this with mercury, which has a long stem.

364
So, this is the stem of the penetrometer. We will take a look at the picture later on. And
once the cell is filled with mercury, we apply pressure. And as pressure is applied, the
mercury will tend to intrude into the concrete samples or pieces. And the amount of
mercury that goes into the concrete piece will obviously come from here; that is, this
length will reduce. So, this is the sample which is filled with mercury. And at a certain
point in time, after pressure has been applied, this amount of mercury has actually
intruded into the sample. And now, we can relate what pressure did we use to cause this
intrusion. And since we know the pressure-diameter relationship, we know that, this
volume corresponds to the volume of pores having a diameter d. So, this principle is the
one that is used throughout the measurement of concrete pores using mercury
porosimetry.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:40)

What really happens is that, from a low level of pressure, we go to high level of pressure
from p 1 to p 2 to p 3 to p 4. And at each of these steps, we note the volumes v 1, v 2,
and v 3, which correspond to the diameters that we have here. Now, from the equation
that we have, we know that, at a pressure p 1 holds for diameter d 1 would be filled; for a
pressure p 2, the pores of diameter d 2 will be filled and so on. Now, as we increase the
pressure from p 1 to p 2, all the pores between d 1 and d 2 will be filled. It is difficult to
find out how much is the volume corresponding to a diameter between d 1 and d 2. So,
what we get here is an average diameter of that; that is, an average diameter
corresponding to the average of d 1 and d 2. And if this exercise is repeated over the

365
different pressure steps, we know the corresponding average diameters. And these results
are often represented in a diagram like this; which we will study in a little greater detail,
which plots the cumulative pore volume or the total pore volume with respect to the pore
diameter.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:13)

The principle of mercury porosimetry therefore is causing mercury to fill the voids in a
sample by applying pressure. The pressure required increases as the diameter of the
pores to be filled reduces. It is easier to fill pores of larger diameters; and that happens at
lower pressures. By measuring the volume of mercury intruded at a given pressure level,
this is therefore, a measure of the pore volume corresponding to that diameter.

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(Refer Slide Time: 21:50)

And, operationally, the system works as follows. Create a vacuum in the pore system;
without creating a vacuum, it is not possible to get intrusion of mercury the way we
would like it to happen. Push the mercury in steps – increase the pressure gradually with
a pressure-time table. So, we increase the pressure in several steps; and that can be
defined in terms of a pressure-time table that, has to how much time should the machine
stand at a given level of pressure. We note the amounts of mercury intruding into the
pore system at different pressure levels.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:34)

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Now, this discussion is pretty similar to how we do a compression or a tension test. In
which case, what we do is to increase the load gradually and we see the response in
terms of the deformation of the specimen. What we really do is we have a cube or a
cylinder or whatever it is; we increase this force; we keep increasing this force as a
function of time and monitor the response of this specimen. How we change the force
determines whether we are trying to do a force-control or a displacement-control test.
But, apart from that, at the end of it, it is a variation of the applied force with time. And
that is something which we are imposing upon the specimen of concrete and monitoring
its response in terms of strengths. So, we do something similar here.

In the case of porosimetry, the pressure is increased as an independent variable. And the
response in terms of mercury intrusion is recorded at each step. So, what we really do is
have a time and a pressure table. We can say that, for a certain amount of time, the
pressure will be kept at a level of P 1; after which it will be increased to a pressure level
of P 2; after some more time, it will be increased to a pressure level of P 3 and so on.
These time steps can be constant or they may not be constant. They may be such that
there is a feedback loop, which tells the machine that, go to the next pressure step only
after the system has become stable; that is, no more intrusion of mercury is taking place
at that pressure level. Now, this no more again can be a small number close to 0, which is
predefined or predetermined and is fair into the machine as an input.

Once again, pressure in this illustration is not being continuously increased. It is being
increased in steps. And you recall the discussion that we did earlier in couple of… And
you recall the discussion we had a couple of slides ago when we said that, pressure is
increased from P 1 to P 2. And corresponding to P 1, we have all pores of d 1, which are
filled up; corresponding to d 2, we have all pores, which we have… We have all pores of
diameter d 2, which are filled up. And therefore, once we increase the pressure from P 1
to P 2, all the pores in between d 1 and d 2 would be filled. And we will get a measure of
the average pore size between d 1 and d 2; how much is that contributing to the porosity
by way of how much is the differential intrusion of mercury during this pressure step.

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(Refer Slide Time: 26:03)

Continuing our discussion, as the pressure is increased from a lower to a higher level, the
pores are filled in a sequence from larger diameters to smaller diameters. I guess now
you understand what was the trick in arranging all the pores in the concrete in a sequence
with the largest pores being placed closed to the surface, and then arranging them in
descending orders of the diameter as we go inside the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:36)

This is the model that we were talking about. And now, we say that, let us allow mercury
to penetrate or intrude into this pore space. A volume V 1 fills at a pressure of P 1. So,

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this is the pressure-time table that we are talking about. We are going to have pressure P
1, P 2, P 3 and P 4 for different periods of time. And we will watch how much of volume
of mercury intrudes into the pore; and this being measured by the changes in the mercury
level in the stem of penetrometer.

Now, if you look at this diagram, obviously, the volume of pores corresponding to the
diameter d 1, which is the largest is very large. Let us say that, this volume intruded is V
1. Corresponding to this pressure step of P 3, the volume intrusion is V 3. And for P 4, it
is V 4. Remember that, the volumes V 1, V 2, V 3 and V 4 are filled in this order; that is,
first of all, we have V 1, then V 2, then V 3 and then V 4 as the pressure is being
increased. But, the diameters that they represent, is the other way round; the V 1 is
getting filled first corresponding to the largest diameter and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:11)

This is another way of representing the data that we just saw. We have now plotted the
differential pore volume d 1, d 2, d 3 and d 4. Because d 1 is the largest diameter; so it
has been placed here. But, this amount of mercury or this volume was the first to intrude
into the pores. And this is the volume corresponding to this space here. Similarly,
corresponding to the volume of pores with d 2, they came next and filled up this space
here. So, the order in which the pores are filled is the other way around. The order in
which they are filled is d 1, d 2, d 3 and d 4. And this is the differential pore volume; that

370
is, the pore volumes that are getting filled at individual pressure levels and individual
diameters.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:11)

Now, another way of representing this would be the total pore volume. This is the
diagram that we already have; that is the differential pore volumes. We know that,
corresponding to d 1, this is V 1; corresponding d 2, this is V 2; corresponding d 3, this is
V 3 and V 4. Now, if we plot the total pore volume that has been intruded, we will get
corresponding to d 1, this is the pore volume. Once the pore volume corresponding to d 2
gets added to it, the total volume that has intruded into the mercury is somewhere here.
Out of which, this portion alone corresponds to the pores, which are between d 1 and d 2.

Similarly, once we go to the next pressure step, this amount of mercury is already in the
pores. And it is only this amount of mercury, which is getting added; that is, from here.
But, the total amount of intrusion is here. Similarly, in the next step, the total amount of
intrusion is here. Strategically, I have inverted the diameter direction here. So, the d 1,
which is the largest diameter, has been placed closest to the origin. So, the diameter in
this case is increasing this way. And that is the traditional way. The diameter of pores is
increasing this way. And that is one of the ways that very often you will see when you
look at pore size distributions being represented or being talked about as far as mercury
intrusion porosimetry and its applications in concrete engineering is concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 30:55)

Here is an example of a real pore size distribution of concrete; and we have an equivalent
pore diameter. The differential pore volume in terms of milliliters per milliliter is often
plotted on a logarithmic scale and is shown here; and we can find out that, corresponding
to different diameters, what is the amount of pore space. What this picture here, which is
for 7 days shows that, there is large amount of volumes; the maximum differential pore
volume occurs at this pore size. But, this does not give us an idea of the total pore
volume.

Now, compared to the pore size distribution in terms of the differential pore volume at
seven days, if we look at a matured cement paste or a concrete, which these authors are
talking about; we see that, there is a complete change in the pore size distribution of the
material. The peak that we saw here simply does not exist when we are talking about a
mature paste; that is, all these pores here have now become filled with hydration
products.

Now, if we look at the cumulative intrusion volume or the total pore volume, what we
are talking about; we find that, these are the reported values at 7 days and 210 days. So,
this 7-day differential pore volume corresponds to this total pore volume; and the 210-
day differential pore volume here corresponds to the 210-day total pore volume results as
shown here. So, we see that, this peak or this distribution, which can be seen at this point
here has vanished; and also, the total pore volume has reduced. And this is what we were

372
talking about when we said that, as we have more and more hydration occurring in the
cement paste and the concretes, the total pore volume changes, it reduces. And also, the
pore size distribution changes, refinement occurs; that is, larger sizes of pores vanish and
we get smaller and smaller sizes of pores.

Now, what is the importance of these smaller sizes of pores or the larger sizes of pores as
far as the strength is concerned, as far as property such as shrinkage or durability is
concerned, is something, which we need to be aware of. What are the implications of
using mineral admixtures such as fly ash or silica fume on the pore size distribution?
Because they ultimately take part in the hydration or they fill the pore spaces and cause
changes in the pore structure. Now, what changes they cause? If that needs to be studied
quantitatively, we need to use the techniques such as the mercury intrusion porosimetry,
what we are discussing now. Of course, we have been talking about the total pore
volume and the differential pore volume. We can also talk in terms of a median pore
diameter or a concept such as d 10; the median pore diameter is the diameter
corresponding to which 50 percent of the pore volume is higher than that diameter. We
can talk in terms of a d 10, which is the diameter, which is such that 10 percent of the
volume is finer than that or coarser than that, whichever way we want to define it. So,
even though the total pore volume and the differential pore volume are the principle
measures or parameters for characterizing concrete porosity, there could be other
measures once we have this data in hand.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:09)

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Now, before we look at the details of mercury intrusion porosimetry and how the data is
interpreted, let us look at a simplified picture or a schematic diagram, which shows pores
or cylinders of different diameters let us say d 1, d 2, d 3 and d 4, which are arranged in
this manner such that of course, d 1 is greater than d 2, which is greater than d 3, which
is greater than d 4. The lengths here can be used to determine the volumes of the pores
corresponding to a particular diameter. Now, with this example, what we will get is
something like this; that pores having a diameter d 1 have a certain volume; let us call it
V 1. Similarly, pores having a value d 2 have a volume V 2; similarly, V 3 and V 4.
Now, in this case, it is important to note that, mercury is being forced into this pore
structure, which is arranged as shown here from the surface and first fills this volume,
then fills this volume followed by this volume, and finally, this volume as the pressure is
increased. This does not happen in real life.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:42)

Now, if we have a system, which is something like this; and that is the more realistic
distribution as far as concrete is concerned. There is no way that we have a system,
where all the coarse pores are at the surface. And as we go within the concrete, the pores
become finer and they are waiting for us to measure the diameters and measure the
amount of volume and so on; that does not happen. And that is what is called the ink-
bottle effect. Now, if you remember, an ink bottle looks something like this. So, this
diameter here in the ink bottle is smaller than the diameter at the bottom. And as far as
mercury pores are concerned, this diameter here is larger than this diameter here. So, this

374
picture essentially looks like an ink bottle. In a manner of speaking, the larger diameter
pores are hidden behind smaller diameter pores. And now, what we are trying to
understand is what are the implications of this phenomenon in terms of the mercury
intrusion porosimetry.

Now, this somehow is the real situation as far as the pore volumes are concerned. We
have a substantial amount of pores corresponding to d 1. There is this pore of d 1; there
is this pore of d 2 and so on. So, there is a large contribution of pore volume
corresponding to a size d 1. However, when pressure p 1, which corresponds to d 1 is
applied, the mercury cannot intrude in the system, because the surface through which the
mercury has to intrude has a diameter of d 2. So, the pores with the diameter d 1 are
really hidden behind. And therefore, the intrusion is 0. Only when the pressure applied is
increased to a pressure p 2, which corresponds to a penetration diameter of d 2, the
mercury intrudes into the sample for the first time and we get a value something like this.
The mercury still does not penetrate into the next level, which is having a diameter d 3
smaller than d 2; and therefore, requires a higher pressure.

Now, if we increase the pressure there, what happens is that, not only this portion of the
mercury gets filled, but this portion as well as this portion also get filled, because the
pressure required to fill the volume of pores corresponding to that diameter is actually
smaller. So, we are applying a pressure higher than that, and therefore, the mercury will
simply flood into the pore space corresponding to d 1 and d 2. And what we will get is
this amount of mercury intruded the pore sample when the pressure was p 3; and roundly
tell us that the amount of pores corresponding to a diameter d 3 is this value, let us say, V
3. Whereas, the actual pores of this size are only d 3. And the same thing is happening
when we go to d 4; the large pore of d 1 behind d 4 is also getting filled up. This
phenomenon as I discussed, is the ink-bottle effect. And when a measurement result is
used, it is better to consider the ink-bottle effect. But, an effective treatment of this effect
is not yet known. There are some researchers, who are trying to understand this issue and
trying to address it by saying that, we have a cyclic test; that is, we increase the pressure
once and then we reduce the pressure and see how much mercury actually comes out.
Those are some of the ways that people are trying to address this issue of ink-bottle
effect as far as concrete structures are concerned.

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(Refer Slide Time: 41:02)

These here are pictures of the porosimetry being actually carried out; which we can see
that, there is some pieces of samples and which are quite small. And these samples or
these small pieces are put in these cells or penetrometers; and that whole system is
sealed; and we have this as the… After the cells in the penetrometers have been sealed,
we put them inside this machine, seal this part, and we are ready to carry out the test.
And once the test has been carried out, we remove these penetrometers. And what we see
here is a penetrometer with mercury present in this cell. And this is the stem that we
talked about. And the amount of movement of mercury that takes place in the system is
what we are talking about when we talk of the differential pore volumes and so on.

376
(Refer Slide Time: 42:03)

To describe the apparatus in text, the penetrometer is constructed of glass, which is an

insulator and fill with mercury, which is a conductor.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:13)

And, the stem is a capillary that acts as a reservoir for the analytical volume of mercury.
It is plated with a metal, which is conductor. And the two conductors, that is, mercury
inside and the metal plating outside are separated by glass and they form a coaxial
capacitor. Now, as the pressure forces the mercury out of the capillary and into the
sample, the mercury inside decreases and so does the capacitance. So, it is the change in

377
this capacitance that we monitor to understand how much is the length of mercury that
has intruded, which is related to the volume of mercury that has intruded.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:51)

There are obvious limitations to the test. The data interpretation of mercury intrusion
porosimetry is based on many assumptions on pore geometry and the interpretation of
connectivity effects. Even the values for the contact angle and the surface tension cannot
be considered to be very accurate. But, they are just good approximations. The samples
as far as concrete is concerned have to be dried prior to measurement and the degree of
drying strongly affects the results. And only very small samples can be analyzed and
they may not necessarily be truly representative in terms of the volume is concerned. See
we can imagine that, we are trying to characterize concrete using samples, which are
simply too small, simply very very small. So, as far as research work is concerned; as far
as understanding of certain principles in concrete engineering as concerned, mercury
porosimetry is a very good tool, but its application in the field is a far cry.

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(Refer Slide Time: 44:05)

Before we close our discussion, let us quickly go through some of the questions that we
need to think about a little more. We could find about the equipment and the principles
that are used a little more. We could collect and analyze data on pore structure in cement
concrete with different cements and mineral admixtures, different ages, different curing
conditions, whatever you have. And we could also study other methods for the
measurement of pore sizes in cement concrete. With this, we come to an end of the
discussion today.

Thank you.

379
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 12
Principles of quality control in concrete construction

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

(( )) and welcome back to this discussion on concrete engineering and technology, in this
course we have been trying to talk about fundamentals of concrete proportioning mixes
different stages in concrete construction, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration
reinforcement and maintenance issues. Basically, the focus is on subjects, which have
become important in the recent years on account of the development that has taken place
in the different aspects relating to concrete engineering and technology, whether it is in
the form of new materials, new methods, more challenging places of concrete application
and so on.

380
(Refer Slide Time: 01:01)

(Refer Slide Time: 01:12)

So, in the discussion today, we will look at the aspect relating to stages in concrete
construction, from the point of view of quality control and assurance. We should
remember that quality is closely related to accidents and safety. Poor quality construction
invites accidents, while construction is going on or even later on therefore, it is important
that everyone involved with the concrete construction, leaves no stone unturned in
ensuring quality construction.

381
We will talk about today, different aspects which are related to and are very important to
ensure quality construction of concrete structures. There is a very strong element of
planning for quality, quality does not come on it is own engineers and technical people
engaged in various activities related to concrete construction, whether it is material
selection, batching at a concrete plant, placing, curing everyone has a role to play; in
insuring quality and it can be planned. If we are systematic in our approach, no matter
what we are doing, we would be contributing to quality.

Conversely speaking, any lax or any lack you know or laxity at any stage leads to poor
quality construction; it has an implication on the quality. And it has an implication to the
extent that no matter how hard the others try, the qualities impelled.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:56)

So, that is something which you would try to take a look today. The fact that concrete is
mostly placed in-situ adds to the problem being made more complex. Factory by
products are easier to handle, as far as quality control is concerned. There are different
players involved in different processes as far as concrete construction is concerned, and
the overall quality control cannot be allowed to drop in the no-man’s land; it is it is
important that not only the people involved in the different individual aspects, material,
selection proportioning batching, transportation and so on. They do their job, but finally,
the overall control of quality is also exercised and is not lost site off

382
A lot of discussion today is not relevant perhaps for the precast industry, where concrete
products are made, and there because the products are made in a controlled environment
in a factory. The rules of normal mechanical engineering or a production line quality
control are applicable. Today, we are concerned primarily with concrete being placed in-
situ in a construction project at site.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:25)

Let us take an illustrative example; consider the construction of a multi-storey building;

and as the usual practice, if you have seen multi-storey constructions, the shuttering for a
higher level slab rests on the previous or the lower slab. And in a particular case the slabs
collapse and they accident is attributed to the fact, that previously casts slab did not have
sufficient strength to carry the load, that came upon it during the construction of the
upper slab.

383
(Refer Slide Time: 05:04)

What we are saying is the following. If this is a multi-storey fringed construction, what
we do is to cast the structure up to this point, and to cast the slab here, we have the
shuttering for this slab resting on this, lower slab and while this slab is cast, the entire
dead load of the concrete being cast the live load of people moving around on, it they
kept when that is kept there and so on is transferred to this slab which may not be very
old.

Now, it is not so difficult to believe or envisage the situation, where if this slab has not
gained sufficient strength, the entire portion here will simply collapse, if the dead load
being applied or the construction load being applied from the slab here, acts on this slab
prematurely.

384
(Refer Slide Time: 06:10)

What could be the possible causes for this situation, it could be the use of cements that
had a slower initial gain in strength; it could be a faster cycle time, one floor to another
due to better equipment and mobilization, usually between one floor and the next floor,
that is the time it takes to do the columns tie the scaffolding and shuttering for the next
floor, that is the what is called the cycle time; that is from floor one slab to the next floor
how much time it takes, and construction people, construction engineers, they try to
maintain a certain schedule. That at least in a week 3 days, 7 days, 12 days that is how
that cycle will be; that is how they plan their construction activity.

Now, account of mechanization better mobilization and so on, it is possible to cut the
cycle time, but if we are not conscious of the fact that cement takes certain amount of
time to hydrate to the extent that a certain amount of strength develops, we are really
playing with fire.

The importance of construction loads could have been ignored in the formal design
process. When we design a concrete structure these slabs for example, we design them
for live loads, dead loads, wind loads earthquake loads and so on, but in case the
construction load happens to be substantial, then one has to formally include that in the
design process itself. There could be workmanship issues such as lack of curing leading
to inadequate strength development at the bottom floor.

385
Now, there could be so many factors, and some of them can be identified through
traditional Q C procedures, for others it may not work, traditional Q C procedure as far
as concrete construction is concerned, let us say deals with strength gained in cubes.

Now, the strength gained in cubes is determined, while the cubes are cured in water at a
certain temperature, the slabs need not be cured in those conditions they may not have
been adequately vibrated and so on and so forth. The case of the illustrative example that
we discussed just now briefly also brings out the fact that it is not easy sometimes to
distinguish between the responsibility of a designer and a contracting agency, which is
involved with the construction work.

Indeed finally, it is the construction work that has collapsed, but what was responsible
for it could have been a design flow; it could have been lack of guidance to the
contracting agency to carry out the work in terms of determining the kind of strength that
is required for the slab, before the slab above it could be cast and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:27)

Now what is quality construction? are there any absolute standards for quality, this
subject has been debated greatly in literature dealing with products, industrial
engineering, management issues and so on, from our point of view quality would mean
perhaps that the concrete construction, should meet the specifications which in turn
means that there should be clear specifications an appropriate test method for evaluation.
Also consistency is another very important dimension of quality variability is an

386
indicator of poor quality, specifications that we write for quality must also take into
account parameters, such as the importance of a structure nature of construction and
structure and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:30)

Their specifications that we write need to aggress challenges on account of use of new
materials mechanization of construction, changing professional environment, basically
quality means compliance with standards, if the standards are such that a medium
performances expected; that is all right in which case the product should be of a medium
quality.

If high performance is expected then indeed the product should clear those higher
standards. We must set the standards clearly and ensure, that the construction meets that
benchmark therefore, we must write the specifications very very clearly very very
unambiguously. So, that it is easier to ensure compliance from that point of view these
three points will elaborate a little more.

387
(Refer Slide Time: 11:34)

We are using lots of new materials in construction; we are using blast furnace slag we
are using silica fume, we are using flyash, we could be using chemical admixtures, which
could be air entrainers, water reducers, set regulators and so on. We could be using short
fibers in fiber reinforced concrete; we could be suing different kinds of reinforcing bars,
epoxy coated bars, fiber reinforced plastics and so on.

We could be using curing of sealing compounds; we could use any of these materials in
the construction process. But we must assure that the construction product that is the
structure that we build, whether it is a building or a bridge or a dam, the quality of that is
not compromised. So long as we ensure that the quality is not compromised we can more
or less use any material we want. For that, we need to have standards, which will test
these materials, which will test the compatibility of the use of these materials with
concrete.

For example, certain fibers which are not so durable in an alkaline environment would
not be suitable for concrete construction, because concrete is a very alkaline medium
therefore, designers and engineers must understand the concrete environment, the
concrete properties and then try to choose the materials, they want to use to enhance
properties of concrete, whether it is fresh concrete or it is hardened concrete durability of
concrete and so on and so forth.

388
(Refer Slide Time: 13:20)

As far as mechanization is concerned that gain needs to be taken into account, when we
are writing specifications, because the specifications that were valid or that can be true
for small scale construction, using non mechanized methods, would not be sufficient
when we are dealing with using mechanical equipment in construction.

Concrete is being poured into more challenging environments, more challenging product
are very very challenging projects are being executed with concrete, and throw the
challenge to the clients, to the end users to be able to write as specification.

One must remember also, that in concrete construction, people from different companies
work together, these engineers who come from different companies have different
objective functions they are not therefore, charity they are for making a certain amount
of profit a certain amount of money for their company.

Therefore, we cannot ensure quality at the cost, at zero cost we can try for that we can try
for quality at low cost without allowing the cost to increase beyond the certain level, but
at times an economic decision has to be made, where we say that if quality versus cost,
has a certain relationship then fine for this cost, this is a best quality, that we can get and
therefore, that is and therefore, let us leave it that; so the distinction to accept a certain
quality is often governed by economics, and that is something which we must keep in
mind.

389
Rapid construction kind of example, that we discussed where a slab collapses, if it is
prematurely loaded with construction loads, these are examples which we need to keep
in mind, when we write the specifications. Let us take an example for example, concrete
is being cast under water now of course,, it is important that the sample for concrete
strength in such cases are also collected under water ,they cannot be collected in air.
Similarly, in certain cases the cube samples may need to be cured under conditions closer
to the side, than under water under water curing is standard curing, but if we are
interested exactly in the strength development, that is happening at site, then we need to
have cubes cured under those conditions.

The reason why we do not do, that as a matter of standard practice is these conditions
vary widely from one place to another from one time to another, and so on therefore, we
say that let us have a standard condition of curing water or concrete placed or concrete
cubes placed in water in a certain temperature.

However in a project specific situation indeed, there is a case that cubes, there is a case
the cubes are cured, along with the structure, that has been cast, so that we can compare
the or we can estimate the actual strength of the structure. Sampling for concrete from a
roller compacted concrete is better with cores than with cubes.

Roller compacted concrete is not vibrated using ordinary needle vibrators, or internal
vibrators; it makes no sense to cast the concrete in cubes, using needle vibrators, where
the concrete is being vibrated at site using vibratory rollers, accept that we cannot create
a cube using vibratory rollers, one may argue that we can create cubes using surface
vibration. That perhaps is a better way of getting cubes, which are more representative of
the concrete cast in the roller compacted pavement or dam, than a concrete cast and a
cube using needle vibrators.

These things though they may sound trivial, but need to be written down in specifications
or methods to be followed for quality control, at a site specific document. We must
remember that standards in specifications generally are guidelines, they should guide the
engineer to write down, and enforce. The specifications at a particular site to deviate
from that is nothing wrong accept, that the deviation should be conscious and with full
knowledge of the consequences.

390
If we decide to take coarse from the roller compacted pavement, we should know that
this is not standard concrete; this is not the concrete which has been prepared under
standard conditions, this is not the concrete which has been cured under standard
conditions and therefore, the results need not be cannot be compared with concrete
prepared or cast or cured under standard conditions.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:32)

Continuing with our discussion, coming to the changing professional environment the
traditional client contractor consultant relationship has undergone a major change in
most major construction projects. The government or the regulators participation in
public, and large projects has been redefined with increase in the size of projects
international participation is increased and with that we have engineers from different
backgrounds, who have been educated in different standards in specifications, capers an
engineer who has been trained in India work with Indian standards, an engineer who has
been trained in, England. For example, would be familiar with British standards or
European standards and so on and so forth.

All these standards have different viewpoints have different methods, and in fact the
stand point from which they have been written is different when private public
partnership, becomes a new mantra then quality control has to be defined very
differently.

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In a traditional situation, where there is a client, and the funds are being provided by the
client the client, has a lot more power to enforce certain standards, but in certain cases
when the funds are not being provided by the client, the contractor or the contracting
agencies the builders, they have a little more leeway in defining quality. There is a lot
more responsibility on them in terms of ensuring quality, because at the end of it as far as
accidents are concerned as far as the safety of the structure is concerned; it is absolutely
everybody is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:38)

Let us take an again, let us take another example let us say that some concrete in a part of
our project is found unacceptable, on account of insufficient strength as determined by
the cubes taken at the time of casting; it is a situation, that is not uncommon it happens
sometimes that the cubes taken at the time of a casting, do not meet the standards.

What do standards are we will probably talk about it a little latter, but they do not need
the standards and therefore, the concrete is deemed unacceptable. Now, what are the
options open we must remember, once again that concrete construction projects, are
large projects involving a lot of effort, in terms of time materials, energy, money,
equipment and therefore, for various reasons, all effort needs to be made to ensure. That
that effort does not go wasted, it does not mean at all that we should compromise on
quality.

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But, while maintaining quality, while maintaining the standards is there a possibility, that
the results that we got from the cubes are something, which are in error it should not
happen, that because of that error a lot of effort gets wasted, and there are different
implications of that in terms of time, in terms of reputations, in terms of the energy and
the money and so on.

So, what are the options that are available as far as the Indian standards. For example, is
concerned it gives you an option in terms of non-destructive testing; it gives an option in
terms of carrying out a load test for the unacceptable part. There could be an option of
strengthening the unacceptable part and of course, the option of dismantling and re-do
the unacceptable part.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:05)

The decision making in this kind of cases is carried out in the framework of contracting,
these things have to be laid out in the specifications, that if certain things happen then
how will the situation be dealt with, discretion at the end of it has to be given to
someone. There can be a discretionary clause, which says that fine, there is this issue of
extra costs, whether that will be admissible or not, and if so who will pay for it, there are
implications in terms of delaying the project, because that dismantling will take time, and
again we have to go back and refurbish, the whole thing create, the new construction so
there is a time delay involved.

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The decision thus has technical, legal, financial, implications, besides involving the use
of additional resources, in terms of time, man power, material machines and so on.
Engineers as professionals must be conscious of this very important role, where quality
has to be looked upon, within this larger framework. Quality should not be
compromised, but at the same time the specifications, should be clear in terms of what is
really required, if that is being met we need not be worried, but if that is not being met,
then we need to take the extreme steps.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:38)

One must remember, that quality should not only be maintained, but also appeared to be
maintained, it should not look as if quality has been compromised, even though there
may be a technical reason for doing, so there should be provisions, which unable the
engineer and the builder to actually be able to figure out the situation, where there is a
problem.

Adequate safeguards to guard against conflict of interest, misuse of discretionary

interpretation etcetera, need to be built in in the provisions itself. This is becoming more
and more important, when we are dealing with international projects larger projects, with
engineers from different organizations, different background, different professional
qualifications, trying to work together, to the completion or the successful completion of
a quality mega project.

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(Refer Slide Time: 26:39)

Now, let us look at the stages in construction project, basically a concrete construction
project there is a concept in planning, where the project is conceived and a plan is drawn
up. This is generally followed by detailed design including functional architectural and
structural design, followed by the construction of the project and finally, operation and
maintenance.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:13)

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Now, if we leave up a concept in planning and maintenance, there are quality issues
related to design and construction , which we must be aware of which we need to
address, then we are taking a view of overall quality of a construction project.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:33)

As far as design is concerned drawings are the output, that need to be checked for quality
do drawings have quality of course,, they have quality. The quality of construction
drawings can be measured in terms of clarity of detail, the cover the strength of concrete
to be provided in the different members, sometimes the beams, the slabs, the columns,
they may have different rates of concrete to be provided that should be specifically noted
on the drawing.

The detailing of reinforcement is a very very important aspect as far as concrete

construction is concerned, and that as far as possible, should not be left to the site
engineer. Who has so many other things to bother about, and is very likely to leave it to a
bar bender, who may want to go home at a particular evening, and leave out some
details, or take a short cut as far as placing certain amount of reinforcement is concerned,
and that may have far reaching implications as far as the overall quality of that particular
portion is concerned.

There should be unambiguous interpretation. The drawings and the design detail should
provide for precautions to be taken during construction, if possible they should ,actually
help the construction engineer, with the construction methodology, the construction

396
engineers at site need to interact with designers to develop in appropriate construction
methodology, which is in line with the design philosophy or the design process that has
been followed.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:29)

Coming to the construction itself or the construction phase itself, we have the concrete
used and its properties or its quality, which is governed by materials proportioning
batching mixing and transportation. We have the formwork, which play such an
important role in determining the quality of the concrete construction. We have issues
related to workmanship in terms of placing, vibration, curing and post processing.

Now, what is post processing of concrete construction, other than curing in certain cases
for example, highway construction; there is a process called texturing which basically
means or involves creating some roughness on the surface of concrete that has been cast.
Now, when should texturing be done, what is the nature of texting to be done and so on
is purely and simply a matter of workmanship at site. Whereas, some of these things we
will talk about great a detail in a discussion later on.

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(Refer Slide Time: 30:47)

(Refer Slide Time: 31:01)

Let us focus for the time being on materials, proportioning, batching, mixing and
transportation, which enough way comprises of the basic construction process. There are
issues, related to way batching versus volume batching way. Batching means, we take
the material by weight the concrete, proportion is given in terms of k g s per cubic meter
and we way that material and mix it.

Volume batching means, that we measured the aggregate and sand by volume, we use
the specific gravity or the bulk density as a matter of fact, and determine a certain

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volume. Now, if we are using volume batching and bulk density by definition, then the
amount of aggregate or sand being taken by weight could vary depending on the level of
compaction and the actual geometry of the box, which we use; it is not a good idea to use
volume batching.

But at the same time in certain cases, it is impractical to insist, and ensure that ready mix
concrete, which meets a certain standard or concrete, which has been way batched the
contractor may not have, or the builder may not have facilities to way batch a concrete
mix. In those cases, it is not fair perhaps to insist on way batching, but at the same time
one must not hesitate to insist on way batching, if it needs to be done in a certain project.

Similarly, washing of aggregates which need to be free from dust, oil, dirt and so on, it
must be ensured, that the aggregates are clean, it must be insisted for example, that the
coarse aggregate, and the final aggregate are s s d, that is surface saturated dry if not the
correction, that is required for the mixing water should be at least in corporate. Priming
of construction equipment, now once the any equipment, whether it is the batching plant
or the agitator trucks or it is the slump cone, and so on, whatever is used in order to take
the concrete from the batching plant to the actual site of placement the pipelines the
pumps and so on.

All these equipment, when they are used for the first time a certain amount of layer, a
certain amount of concrete is deposited on the surface, and the properties of the first
batch of concrete are somewhat different from the subsequent batches. Looking at
another way if the equipment has been used for a certain type of concrete, and then
another concrete is mixed in the same mixer, some remnence of the previous mix
whether they contain fibers, whether they contain silica, fume or flyash and so on. They
will adulterate, the first mix or may be the first few mixes of the new concrete.

Therefore, if we are very careful about quality, if we want to be very careful about
quality, then we must prime the construction equipment with the kind of concrete. That
we are going to use that is we will have a few batches or some amount of concrete,
which is allowed to go waste, just to make sure that a steady state as far as the effect of
properties of the mixing equipment on the properties of concrete is concerned, that part is
taken out of our equation, when we are talking of the quality of concrete.

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There are special situations for example, for mixing manually, the use of nominal mixes.
Nominal mixes is another very special kind of mix, where we say that in order to get m
20 concrete or a 15, kind of concrete basically not very high strength concretes or not
even medium strength concretes, we do not need to design a concrete mix. Because, that
process is very involved, it takes more time and in certain cases that luxury is not
available with us and we say that fine.

If concrete is mixed in a particular proportion that is a prescriptive thing for 50 k g of

cement. So much of sand so much of aggregates so much of water, if it is mixed properly
and placed it may be considered equivalent to m 15 or m 20 that provision. If it is there it
should be used very sparingly because, that is not the way we would like large
construction projects to be executed, but at the same time for smaller construction
projects, that kind of a provision needs to be there.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:37)

Defining in ambient temperature range for normal construction when concrete is been
placed at site the temperature could vary for example, in a country like, India from
anywhere between minus 3 minus 4 degree centigrade to may be as higher 45, 47 degree
centigrade.

Now, what is the normal range in which construction activity will be allowed in other
times, we will need to bring in the special considerations which are involved for cold,

400
weather or hot weather concrete, what is the normal range, where we would allow
construction activities without taking those measures.

Then we talk of methods of transportation, and the necessary precautions. These have to
be spelt out in the specifications specially, if you are using something like, conveyer belt
or even if you are using agitator trucks or agitator mixes is there a need to ensure cooling
of the surface of these trucks, when is that cooling required. What is the performance
criteria that is to be used, these are things which we need to clearly write down in our
specifications, and only then we can ensure compliance, which will in turn ensure
quality.

There could be issues for example, for dosing part of water or a chemical admixture
during transportation or just before placing, this has to be specifically studied on a case
to case basis, and a decision taken without adversely affecting the total quality of
concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:20)

Now, coming to quantifying quality of concrete construction, at the end of it the quality
needs to be reduced to certain parameters, which are measurable and by measuring them
we quantify the quality of concrete construction, and that happens for properties of fresh
concrete; the properties of hardened concrete, and also the properties of the structure
which has been cast or made.

401
(Refer Slide Time: 38:51)

Now, as far as the properties of fresh concrete are concerned, we have talked about it
earlier it could be basic test like slump air content temperature, time of placing bleeding
setting time, whatever the engineers choose to use, there could be other specific tests or
special test for slump flow passability, flowability and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:10)

Similarly ,for the hardened concrete the basic test could be strength, modulus of rupture,
modulus of elasticity, and so on other test could be porosity permeability, toughness
these tests help us quantitatively, understand the quality of hardened concrete.

402
(Refer Slide Time: 39:31)

As far as the structure is concerned, that is the final product; it is not the concrete ;it is
not the cement. So for the test for structure, we need to make sure that there are no
cracks no honeycombing, there is a verticality in the vertical structure, the structure is
not wavering, there is a certain amount of planeness or roughness and this is governed by
the type of formwork used, the quality of formwork used, and the workmanship. Issues
like water tightness, if it is a water retaining structure like, a water tank then there are
performance tests, which specifically test water tightness.

Similarly for structures which are supposed to be vertical, that be vertical wall it should
not be out of plumb by more than a certain amount, that amount need to be clearly
specified and that is the way we ensure finally, the quality of the structure.

403
(Refer Slide Time: 40:40)

As far as the ready mixed concrete, plant is concerned. There are tests for individual
materials ,it is important to have a specified sampling procedures, with the frequency;
this frequency of test can be based on time, that is the sampling, will be done every day
every week, every three days, twice a day and so on, it could be specified in terms to the
volume of concrete being mixed. Because of batching plant need not produce the same
amount of concrete every day, there can be a scheme of thought, which says that well for
every cubic meter, every ten cubic meters, every fifty cubic meters, the material being
used will be tested.

The rational could be that after a certain amount of time, the batches of the material
being used could change, the time that has elapsed might be different and so on. We
must remember that some of these items, need to be spelt out simply to clearly define,
the rules of the game, and it is important from a professional and a legal point of view.
These provisions have legal implications, there are financial implications and therefore,
unless they are returned down, in that form it is difficult to ensure compliance.

404
(Refer Slide Time: 42:08)

As far as the testing of concrete itself is concerned, it could be the same test, slump air
temperature setting time and so on, but the important point is where should these test be
carried out, as far as quality control procedures are concerned. They can be carried out at
the plant, they can be carried out at the site of placing or both these places. Finally,
concrete is going to be placed at a certain location, and that is where the concrete must
satisfy certain criteria. But it stands to reason to believe that there is no point in taking a
concrete which is unacceptable to begin with all the way to the site of placement and
then reject it therefore, there needs to be tests at the plant itself.

These tests at plant and at site, should account for differences that might occurred during
transportation for example, slump loss, air loss, evaporation of water and so on. These
are the kind of considerations, which would give rise to a procedure by which some
water or chemical admixture may be added at site, and not at the batching plant this
especially true for example, for an accelerator, there is no way an accelerator can be used
in a concrete at the batching plant, and the concrete has to be transported.

So, there is a case where someone will say that well let me use everything else in the
concrete, at the plant have certain properties, take the concrete to the batch, take the
concrete to the site of placing, add the accelerator and then do the casting. In this case
obviously we need to have quality control parameters, the acceptability of concrete in

405
terms of the concrete at the plant, and at the and for the concrete at the site there is this
issue of frequency of sampling.

Again, the frequency could be based on time twice a day once a day, once in 3 days or it
could be based on the volume of pour since testing involves use of resources. If it is not
specified it may not be carried out and therefore, it must be specified.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:52)

Here too the issue of frequency of testing is very important, how often should the
sampling be done, for properties, of fresh concrete properties, of hardened concrete
whether it is at site or at say plant, whether it should be governed by time, that is twice a
day once a day once in 3 days, once a week whatever or should it be on the volume of
the pour for every 10 cubic meters, every 50 cubic meters, everyday regardless of the
volume and so on. This needs to be laid down its needs to be laid down because testing
involves consumption of resources, and somebody may like to cut corners, if a minimum
of sampling frequency or a minimum amount of sampling is not specified.

406
(Refer Slide Time: 45:52)

Now, having discussed the different aspects relating to quality, now let us try to conclude
the discussion for today, with some homework as, we usually do. We could study the
quality control parameters for concrete construction, in different specifications we have
been talking about today of different specifications being written for different kinds of
concrete construction in different countries.

Specifications could be different for dams, they could be different from for bridges, they
could be different for priestess concrete, they could be different from India to the United
States or Singapore or Japan. We could study the quality control parameters, in these
different conditions, and different countries. It will be interesting also to study the
differences from the point of view of quality, control in structural steel, and concrete
construction. Structural steel construction is not something which we have at all talked
about in this course nor do we intend to, but the principle is that steel is a factory made
product, roll sections are made in factories, built up sections are made at site fabricated at
site and the whole range of issues, as far as quality control is concerned is quite different,
the fabrication drawings for steel structures are often made at site, not so the detailing of
reinforcement. Seldom is detailing of reinforcement formally done and recorded at site.

The same is true with the design of formwork that is something, which we will probably
talk about briefly in some other context enabling structures, temporary structures, these
are all very different. As far as steel structure is concerned and concrete is concerned, so

407
from the point of view of quality control, it would be an interesting study to understand
these things a little bit better. We could find out more about the roles and responsibilities
the contractor, the consultant and the owner from the point of view of quality control. At
the end of it, the quality of the product the structure is of importance is something
sacrosanct to everyone. But how everyone approaches these problems, how the different
agencies involve approach their problem, there could be very interesting differences and
that is something, which we could study a little bit more.

Thank you.

408
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 13
Quality Control and Acceptance Criteria for Concrete Based on Compressive
Strength

(Refer Slide Time: 00:20)

Welcome back to these lectures on concrete engineering and technology, where we are
talking about different aspects related to concrete construction; fundamentals is
proportioning stages of concrete constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of
deterioration that we see in concrete around us, reinforcement in concrete structures and
their maintenance.

409
(Refer Slide Time: 00:44)

Continuing with our discussion on stages in concrete constructions from the point of
view of quality control and quality assurance, we saw in the last discussion that issues
related to quality are very closely related to accidents and safety; poor quality
construction invites accidents. And that is something, which we would like to avoid at all
costs. Accidents during construction; accidents, post construction as a result of that
quality construction, we need to… And we need to put in all efforts to ensure that, they
do not happen. There is a strong element for planning for quality. That was emphasized
in the last discussion, when we said that, quality of concrete construction is related to all
aspects of concrete construction: material selection, proportioning of materials, mixing
and so on. And each of these steps we can plan; what are the steps that we can take in
order to ensure quality construction.

410
(Refer Slide Time: 01:55)

Continuing from there, we had also talked about what is quality construction and if there
are any absolute standards related to quality. The basic thing is that, the concrete
construction must meet the specifications. What we want from their structure should be
laid down in their specifications. And we must have test methods in place, which will
ensure that, what we get in the concrete structure by way of the material that we used, by
way of the performance of the concrete that we have used; those specifications are
satisfied. This of course in turn means that, there should be clear specifications and test
methods for evaluation. Consistency we had emphasized was a very important dimension
of quality. Variability is an indicator of poor quality. We have briefly discussed this
aspect when we talked about proportioning of concrete mixes.

When we accept that characteristic strength plus 1.65 times the standard deviation,
should be the target of the strength; we should target strength, which is equivalent to 1.65
times standard deviation plus the characteristic strength in order to proportion a concrete
mix. And this standard deviation we had discussed was related to the quality control. It is
related to the variability that we get in our results. So, consistency is a very very
important part in quality control. The smaller the standard deviation here or in any
parameter, we can assume or that is how it is defined that, lower is the variability; the
data is more repeatable; it is more consistent. Its specifications must also take into
account parameters such as the importance of the structure, the nature of construction
and the structure and so on. Different structures built in different environments, need to

411
have specific plans, specifications for those structures – the conditions in which they are
built. If we are writing about building a road – a concrete road, the specifications have to
be different from the concrete that is used or for the construction using concrete and
buildings or bridges. So, the specifications have to be tailor-made.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:26)

When we are talking about quality control and assurance, we also saw that, the issue
cannot be looked upon in isolation from the stages of construction and their
specifications for the job. And the specifications need to address the use of new
materials, mechanization in the construction process and changing professional
environment. These issues have been talked about last time.

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(Refer Slide Time: 04:46)

And, quality of concrete construction is affected by the quality at each step. However, we
must make sure that, apart from a narrow view that the requirements at each step are met,
we must ensure that the larger global picture is not lost sight of, because we may use the
best of materials; we may use the best of construction processes. But, if the design itself
is flawed, there is no point in having a structure of that nature; each bound to fail. So, we
cannot have a very narrow view of quality. While we ensure quality at each step, the
larger picture of ensuring a sound concrete structure at the end of the process, at the end
of the entire construction process, should not be lost sight off. And given the far-reaching
implications, quality at each step needs to be considered seriously and planned for.

413
(Refer Slide Time: 05:47)

Today, our discussion will largely focus on the issue of compressive strength; an
accurate determination of which is at the core of many an effort in quality control and
quality assurance in concrete construction. The compressive strength of concrete is taken
as one single critical parameter, which determines the quality of concrete construction.
There are lots of others, but a lot of effort is related or is made to ensure and discuss the
compressive strength – the strength of the concrete that we are using. Of course, there are
specifications involved; different specifications talk of slightly different things as far as
compressive strength is concerned in terms of the specimens used, in terms of the age at
which they are tested – the shape, the size and so on. We will confine our discussion
largely within the scope as defined in terms of IS 456, which is the basic Indian
specification on the subject.

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(Refer Slide Time: 07:01)

Now, testing for concrete or the compressive strength of concrete as a parameter for
quality control requires us to address the following. Sampling frequency and method –
how much concrete should be taken, how frequently it should be taken, how the sample
should be taken and so on; the testing method that should be used to test the concrete
specimens – all the nitty-gritty details; and finally, the acceptance criteria – given the
results, whether the concrete is acceptable. We must remember that, any test method – if
we follow it religiously, will yield the result. The issue is whether that result is
acceptable to us or not. And that is the core of the acceptance criteria, which is a very
very important part as far as writing specifications is concerned. These three aspects:
sampling frequency and method, the test method and the acceptance criteria – in a
manner of speaking, lay down the rules of the game; and it is very critical given the
nature of the activity. These rules have to be defined before the game begins.

We cannot change the rules in the middle of the game. We cannot certainly say that, the
project started with the certain acceptance criteria or a certain method of testing, but it
will be changed in the middle of the project. We indeed can do that, but we should be
very very careful in doing that, given the fact that, quality control is not really just one
player problem; it just does not involve a single company or an organization. There are
different players in the game, the contractors, the consultants, the clients, designers. And
if we want to change these rules in any of these ideas or in any of these aspects,
everybody has to be on board; they have all to agree. And they have not only to agree as

415
far as the technical and professional issues are involved, but also the financial, legal
issues that are involved. It has to be a very careful decision.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:29)

As I was mentioning, this decision making has to be carried out within the framework of
contracting. And these contracts define the inter-relationship of the clients, consultant
and the contractor. There could be extra costs, which are involved whether they are
admissible or not. And if they are admissible, who should bear them; these decisions
have technical, legal, financial implications and have an effect in terms of use of
additional resources, which could be time, manpower, material, machines and so on.

416
(Refer Slide Time: 10:03)

As far as the sampling frequency and method is concerned, we could sample by volume
of pour that, for every pore exceeding a certain amount of volume or for a certain amount
of concrete pour at a construction site and a project, so many samples have to be taken.
Or, it could be by time that, everyday regardless of the volume of concrete be used, a
sample has to be taken, which should be tested for compressive strength. What is the
location of the sampling? Whether it is taken at plant or whether the concrete is taken at
site as far for compressive strength. At site again, there is a possibility that, it can be
taken at the agitator truck, where the concrete lands up at site or it could be taken at the
discharge pipe. Now, between the agitator truck and the discharge pipe, there is the
pumping operation that happens; and concrete is pumped from the place, where it is
being discharge from the agitator truck to the actual site of placement. So, all these
things have to be pre-decided.

417
(Refer Slide Time: 11:14)

As far as the testing method is concerned, that has many many interesting variations; the
nature and size of the specimen including tolerances in size and shape. It is very nice to
say that, we will use a 150 mm cube. But, what is the tolerance that is allowed?
Obviously, in engineering, when we make concrete cubes, they may not measure exactly
150 by 150 by 150; there may be a tolerance or there may be a difference of 1 mm or 2
mm. So, we have to specify as to what is the tolerance, which is acceptable; beyond
which, the cube will not be acceptable as a valid specimen. Similarly, in shape, it is nice
to say that, the edges or the angles between faces should be 90 degrees. If it is not, then
what is the extent to which we are going to allow a deviation. How are the specimens
going to be stored before testing? What kind of curing will be carried out? At what
temperature will the water be if it is water curing? As far as the testing method is
concerned, once the concrete specimens have been cured, what kind of equipment will be
used? What is the capacity? What are the characteristics in terms of the stiffness of the
machine, the capacity of the machine and so on?

What would be the rate of loading? The rate of loading is one of the parameters, which
determine the strength. We should keep in mind that, the strength of the concrete is
something which we determine. The concrete does not tell us that, I have strength of 23
MPa. We carry out certain tests; and anything which is related to that test, will affect
whatever strength that we get. With the same concrete cube, we may get 23, we may get
24, we may get 25; sometimes we may get 22 depending on any or all of these factors.

418
And these are the things that contribute to the differences in values to small extents.
Now, when this extent or these differences become unacceptable, we really need to
revisit our entire quality control regime.

Now, other than rate of loading, there could be the condition of the specimen at the time
of testing; whether the concrete is being tested immediately after it is removed from a
curing tank or it is allowed to stand till such time is all excess water adhering to the
surfaces evaporated or removed or the specimens are taken out from the curing tank and
tested the next day and so on. So, what exactly is the condition of the specimens at the
time of testing and so on, and so on? So, we must remember that, we need to carry out a
standard test. All efforts should be made to ensure that, the provisions are followed in
letter and spirit. It is difficult to lay down absolutely all the conditions that are required.
But, we must try to understand as engineers and quality control engineers especially that,
what are the issues involved and try to make engineering decisions. The fewer or the less
the scope for such decisions, the lesser is the variability that we will get as far as quality
is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:06)

Now, coming to the acceptance criteria; now, this is the basis on which it can be stated
that, the concrete meets the requirements and is hence accepted; and as a corollary that,
failing which the concrete may not be accepted. Please… And remember that, I am using
the word may not be accepted. There could be conditions, which specifications have to

419
lay down that, if the strength has determined by cubes does not meet a certain
requirement, what should be really done?

(Refer Slide Time: 15:48)

Let us take an illustrative example. If the observed strength of M25 grade concrete is
found to be 26 MPa, it necessarily means that, the concrete meets the acceptance criteria.
Is this statement true or false? What we wanted was an M25 concrete. That is what the
designer wants. M25 means a characteristic strength of 25 MPa.

Now, for all the conditions that are in place – 28 days water curing and so on and so
forth, the strength observed is 26 MPa, which is higher than 25. Does it necessarily mean
that the concrete meets the acceptance criteria or the criteria for the designer that, the
concrete is... As a corollary to that, if it is observed that, for the same M25 concrete, their
strength in turns out to be 23 MPa, which is less than 25; is it obvious that, it does not
meet the acceptance criteria? If we are able to answer these two questions, I think we
have understood the whole issue of acceptance criteria as far as compressive strength is
concerned; and its specifications need to define these rules clearly. If the definition was
simple enough, that, anything higher than characteristics strength is acceptable; anything
below characteristic strength not acceptable; then the situation would be very simple.
But, let me assure you, that is not the case; and that is why we are talking about it at such
length today.

420
(Refer Slide Time: 17:40)

What are the considerations that go in our mind, when we define an acceptance criteria?
One is the definition of characteristic strength itself. Now, let us try to revisit this
definition once again having done that once when we were talking about the proportional
of concrete mixtures. Let us try to understand what we did at that time once again.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:11)

Now, this here is the frequency distribution of strength data as far as concrete is
concerned for a given condition. By definition, characteristic strength f c k means or
refers to that strength, below which not more than 5 percent of the specimens are allowed

421
to fall. In other words, the area under this curve beyond the characteristic strength should
be 95 percent. When we were doing proportioning of concrete mixes, we said that, in
order to achieve this characteristic strength, the concrete should be proportion such that
the mean strength of that concrete mix should be f c k plus 1.65 times the standard
deviation. And the standard deviation – if it is not known to us to begin with, we are
allowed to assume certain standard deviations, which are given in the specifications
depending on the grade of concrete, which is being used.

Now, the picture really is the following. We have concrete, which has been cast in a
structure; with the concrete whose mean strength was higher than the characteristic
strength; and we have also accepted the fact that, a certain amount of specimens, certain
amount of samples will be allowed to fall below the characteristic strength with the
provision that not more than 5 percent of the samples will fall there.

Now, this allowance of allowing or permitting a certain number of samples falling below
characteristics strength throws out of the window the idea that, any concrete, which is
higher than f c k is acceptable; and anything which is lower than f c k is unacceptable.
By our own definition of characteristic strength and the design process, we have allowed
a certain amount – 5 percent of these specimens to be below f c k. Similarly, the concrete
is not designed for f c k; the strength of the concrete itself is not the characteristic
strength; the strength of the concrete is a value, which is higher than the characteristic
strength. And these two aspects must be addressed when we talk about acceptance
criteria, when we talk about laying down acceptance criteria.

So, continuing with our discussion as far as considerations in defining or laying down
acceptance criteria, is concerned apart from the definition of characteristic strength has
been discussed. There has to be reasonableness in the criteria and decision making. The
reasonableness now comes from engineering considerations. It is alright to say
theoretically or scientifically that, 5 percent of the specimens or the samples may fall
below characteristic strength. But, would we like in a structure to have 5 percent area or
5 percent volume in that concrete to be very very poor as far as quality is concerned? The
answer obviously is no; which means that, now, from an engineering judgment, we will
temper the criteria of 5 percent specimens being allowed to fall below characteristic
strength.

422
Similarly, we need to take a decision within a reasonable time frame; we cannot wait for
the decision making till a large number of samples have been tested. We need to take
decision, so that the concrete construction can proceed. And therefore, certain groups or
certain time spans have to be identified and the decisions taken, chapters closed as the
construction proceeds. Similarly, poor construction or good construction at one point in
time cannot be allowed to affect the decision making beyond a certain point in time. We
should keep in mind that, concrete construction in large projects often continues for a
period of several months and maybe a couple of years in certain cases. And therefore, it
is very likely that, due to certain reasons, there might have been very good construction
at some points in time and maybe some very average kind of construction at different
points in time. Those outline periods cannot be allowed to cloud our thinking for all the
time as far as the construction project is concerned or for the entire construction project.

Basically, what the acceptance criteria should do is to lay down and define an
unambiguous flow chart to follow. The step by step process should be very very clearly
defined; and it should define not only what should be done in one case, but also the other
case. For example, we may say that, if a certain condition is met, the concrete is
acceptable. We must also say that, if that condition is not satisfied, what are the steps that
need to be taken such that all possibilities that arise as a result of the testing of concrete
are covered? What are the number of specimens to be used to obtain a representative
value? Now, here we have use the word specimen. And a specimen is a single piece; a
sample comprises of several specimens. So, sometimes we talk of samples and
sometimes we talk of specimens; we should be clear as to what is a significance of the
result in terms of the result obtained from the specimen or the result obtained from the
sample. And that is something, which we are going to talk about as we go along.
Acceptance criteria should obviously handle non-acceptances as well. And that is what
we said that, it has to cover all possibilities.

423
(Refer Slide Time: 25:59)

Let us take an illustrative example once again. Now, as far as testing for compressive
strength in concrete is concerned, we usually use three specimens and test them for
strength. And these three specimens constitute a single sample. So, we take three cubes:
1, 2 and 3; test them for a strength; maybe we will get strength 1, 2 and 3; and then we
take an average of 1 plus 2 plus 3 and try to see, what is the average strength that we get
as far as these specimens are concerned. And that becomes this strength of the sample
that we have taken. And we are not going to the statistics of why to take three specimens.
Continuing this discussion with three specimens, first thing that we need to ensure is that
they yield internally consistent results. Therefore, we need to carry out a test and
determine if the sample is admissible or valid.

424
(Refer Slide Time: 27:16)

Let us take an example. We take three specimens and these three cubes; they yield a
value which is 22, 23 and 24 MPa. They seem to be internally consistent; and they does
not seem to be anything wrong in taking the average here and saying that, as for as the
concrete sample is concerned, the average is 23 MPa.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:52)

Having said that, now, instead of 22, 23 and 24, if these three cubes were to yield 15, 25
and 35 MPa as the values, then it is difficult to say that, this is a sample, which

425
represents a concrete within average strength of 25, because we are not sure which of
these specimens is really are true representative of the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:37)

Apart from these two examples, there can always be a situation, where the three
specimens that we test give us values, which are 27, 28 and 15 or 42. Now, in either of
these cases, we have these two as outliers. These two will affect the average of the
sample if we want call it a sample. And this is what we refer to; and this treatment or this
test that we are trying to carry out now, is one which defines internal consistency of the
specimens in order to ensure that, they constitute a valid sample. The acceptance
business comes much later. First of all, we have to establish that, the three results are
internally consistent. How do we determine or establish this internal consistency? Now,
how do we establish that, these specimens or a set of results that we get from three
specimens is internally consistent? And for that, we need a test. The Indian specifications
tell us that, the results will be deemed to be consistent if the standard deviation within
these three results is within a certain number. We must carry out the test and see if the
results are within this permissible range; and then we know whether the sample is valid
and admissible or not.

Now, coming to the assertion that, the specifications need to cover all possibilities, we
also need to say that, in case the specimens yield results, which are not internally
consistent; then what should be done? One possibility is that, in a situation like this,

426
where we get 27, 28 and 15, we say 15 is an outlier and the average of these two will be
taken or the average of these two may be taken. Or, we can say that, if the sample is such
that the standard deviation is higher than the acceptable level, the entire test is thrown
out; it is not to be used; it can be one or the other. The Indian specifications tell us that, it
should be simply thrown out of the window; the test should not be considered; or, the test
results should not be considered. Once we do not have a valid sample, there is no
question of talking in terms of any acceptability of that sample. And indeed only for a
valid sample, we need to talk about acceptance of the concrete that it represents.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:45)

Summarizing, there is a criterion on internal consistency, which says that, not more than
a certain deviation in the three individual readings is allowed; in case that happens,
discard the sample. As far as acceptance is concerned, we need to check only for valid
samples and examine two criteria: the individual average and the average of a group of 4.
So, when we get a sample, we have to decide two things: whether as an individual
sample, that value is acceptable or not; and the second thing is, is it acceptable as an
average of 4 or group of 4. We will try to see this in the subsequent slides. And in the
event of non-acceptance, there is a provision in Indian standards for non-destructive
testing, load test, etcetera before a final decision on dismantling is made. This is how the
acceptance criteria is laid out as far as Indian standard is concerned.

427
(Refer Slide Time: 32:54)

This is the part of a summary I should say. For acceptance criteria, for concrete grades, if
it is M 15, which is normally not used in reinforced construction; the mean as far as the
mean of four non-consecutive samples are concerned, should be f c k plus 3. And if we
are dealing with concretes, which are M 20 and higher, then this value should be higher
than f c k plus 4. As far as the individual tests are concerned, no value should be lower
than f c k minus 3 and f c k minus 4 as is shown here. These values 3 and 4 are given as
absolute numbers and are also given in terms of the standard deviation that we get in the
field. As far as this illustration is concerned here, we are using 3 and 4. But, once we
understand the principle, then it is only a matter of choosing between a fixed number or
determining that number on the basis of the standard deviation.

428
(Refer Slide Time: 34:05)

As far as Indian standard is concerned for assumed standard deviations, now, we can see
that, for different grades of concrete, there are different standard deviations that may be
assumed in the absence of actual field data. Now, this is the kind of table that we used
when we did proportioning of concrete mixes. Initially, we may have to do that, even
when we are doing acceptance of concrete early in the project when enough data has not
accumulated in order to enable us to determine or understand for ourselves, what is the
real standard deviation as far as concrete is concerned for a particular project. But, as the
project moves along, we can and should start using the actual standard deviations that we
get.

429
(Refer Slide Time: 34:56)

Now, coming to the concrete quality control itself, let us say these are the individual
values of samples strengths; that is, strengths determined on the basis of three specimens
each – all of them of course, have to be valid. Now, what we will get is a certain
compressive strength. The compressive strength as determined is not really related to the
characteristic strength accept that, of course based on the characteristic strength that we
want, we would decide acceptance of a certain value. What that means is that, we have a
line here, which is characteristic strength. So, the way these dots or the individual values
have been placed, they are all above the characteristic strength. So, all these samples are
higher than characteristic strength.

Now, whether they are all acceptable? The course tell us that there is another line here,
which is f c k plus 0.825 times sigma or 3 or 4 as we saw in the table earlier. And the
sample should really be above that line – above this line in order to be acceptable. This
comes from our fundamental that, the concrete at the end of it, which is being used, is
not being designed for giving us characteristic strength; it is being designed to give us a
value, which is higher than characteristic strength. Now, when it comes to acceptance
criteria, we have put down a number, which is f c k plus 0.825 times sigma.

430
(Refer Slide Time: 36:59)

This is the control of a group of four samples. So, now, how do we control that? Here is
the group of four samples, which will have their own average. This is another group of
four samples, which will have their own average. This is another group of four samples,
which will have their own average and so on. So, this is one possibility, where the groups
are being defined in terms of overlapping groups; something like a moving average
concept. And these averages have to be higher than the line of f c k plus 0.825 times
sigma.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:37)

431
Another possibility could be define an average using these four; and then define the
average here. Define an average of these four, take the average here; define an average of
these four and take the average here. Now, the difference between this method and the
previous method is the fact that, in this case, these are non-overlapping samples. So,
basically, once we decide the fit of one group of four, the chapter as far as that group of
four is closed. Whatever happens with this strength here or this strength here does not
affect any decision making beyond this point in time. So, whether it is a bad result or a
good result, all the decision making is done at this point in time. And that is something,
which is very important and a very key aspect as far as quality control is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:45)

Now, coming to individual samples, we have line here, which is as usual f c k and we
have values, which may be here or here. Now, as individual samples, are these values
acceptable or not, regardless of what happens to the average? For that, we have a line,
which is defined here, which is f c k minus 3 or f c k minus 4. This value being 3 or 4 or
it is something related to the standard deviation; and we say that, no individual sample is
allowed to fall below this line. This is acceptable, but this is not. Basically, what we are
saying is that, all our understanding or all the theoretical idea that, 5 percent samples are
allowed fall below characteristics strength – it stops at those values still being within 3
MPa or 4 MPa or within some predefined level of f c k.

432
(Refer Slide Time: 40:16)

If you look at this picture once again, what engineering is telling us is that, 5 percent of
samples are allowed to fall below this line, but nothing here is acceptable. Only this is
the region, where concrete may fall below the characteristic strength. This region here is
this 3 or 4 MPa or whatever it is. And therefore, this value is acceptable, because even
though it is below f c k, it is above this critical value of f c k minus 3 or f c k minus 4
depending on whether we are testing M 15 concrete or M 20 concrete or M 25 concrete;
and of course, this 3 and 4 are related to the standard deviations and so on, whereas this
concrete is not acceptable, because it falls below the minimum strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:18)

433
We need to have similar guidelines for testing materials, testing fresh concrete, testing of
finished structures, and so on. We need to have individual values and how to handle
them; we need to have guidelines for how those individual values are going to be
integrated into a system; and how will we go about continuing to make our decision
making from time to time without getting clouded with decisions made far back in time.
We need to have systems in place, which will enable us to provide feedback from
strength data to the construction operations.

If for example, we find that, the standard deviations that we are getting are lower than
what we had planned or lower than what we had assumed, this has implications in terms
of the actual strength we are getting. And the proportioning of concrete that we have
done, we may be able to save cement or we may have to put in extra cement depending
on what are the actual values of the standard deviation. There may be a situation, where a
designer may have to be told that, due to certain considerations, we are getting a higher
strength or a lower strength than what we had initially assumed. And can we modify
something in the design process in order that, the construction becomes economical. So,
there is nothing wrong in understanding the economics of quality control.

Quality control is an exercise at the end of it being carried out to ensure to the concrete
meets the specifications, meets the required bench mark. Now, if it is being met, then the
second decision is to be made, whether it is being done economically. Is there a
possibility of being able to reduce the cost, reduce the dimension of the environment and
so on without compromising quality? We need to also emphasize the importance of
construction and quality control records and as built drawings, because this serve a very
important role as reference material for the maintenance engineer once the structure is in
service. So, if we have, we need all the constructions records when it comes to
maintenance. We must understand what was the actual strength of concrete, which was
poured; not only the fact that, the structure was designed for M 20 or M 25, we should
know the actual strength, because that helps us in understanding the behavior a lot better.

434
(Refer Slide Time: 44:16)

Now, as far as addressing non-compliance is concerned, there is always a possibility like

I said that concrete in a part of project is found an acceptable on account of insufficient
strength as determined by the cubes taken at the time of casting.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:21)

The options open to us are non-destructive testing, load tests, strengthening the
unacceptable part and dismantling and re-doing the unacceptable part, any decision that
is made as financial implications.

435
(Refer Slide Time: 44:49)

We must remember that, quality should not only be maintained, but also appear to be
maintained. We need to have adequate safeguards to guard against conflict of interest,
misuse of discretionary interpretation, and so on in the provisions. But, having said that,
if these provisions are made, in the specifications itself, which is a professional
document, then the possibility that, somebody is charged with misuse of discretionary
interpretation reduce so much more.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:23)

436
Now, coming to a close of our discussion today, let us try to recapitulate and go back
with some things, which we need to think about a little more.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:30)

We could study the sampling requirements from different specifications. We did not talk
in detail today about sampling frequency. And that is something which we must get a
better handle on. How do different specifications handled on compliance? We talked a
little bit about what is Indian standards as far as IS 456 does in terms of permitting a
non-destructive test or a load test, and so on, if the cubes fail.

We should also think about a possibility that, as far as non-compliance is concerned, we

should carry out certain non-destructive test or load test, and so on. But, is it not required
at all to carry out this test in case the structure continues to meet the requirements as far
as cube test is concerned? What I am saying is that, if the concrete strength as
determined from the cubes, continues to be sufficient; then is there no need at all to
actually test the structure? The answer is yes and no. Depending on the criticality one
might like to say that, regardless of what happens as far as cube test is concerned, once in
a while, we should carry out certain (( )) test to determine or understand the actual
strength of the structure.

Another argument could be that, that is not required; so long as the cubes are being tested
and the results are acceptable, we can assume that, the concrete in the actual structure is
also acceptable. What that we should remember is that, the end of it; only an assumption

437
that, if the cubes are, everything is ok. What are the other methods to establish internal
consistency and acceptance of samples? We talked briefly today in terms of the standard
deviation within the three specimens and we talked in terms of acceptance based on
individual sample results and a group of four kinds of sample results. There could
obviously be other methods based on which a concrete could be accepted. We also need
to know a little bit more about the non-destructive test, the load test, and so on given in
IS 456 in the case of non-acceptance on the basis of strength as obtained from the cubes.
And with this, we come to a close of the discussion.

Thank you.

438
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 14
Fiber reinforced concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:19)

Welcome to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology. This course that we are
having on the subject of concrete engineering, seeks to revise principles of concrete
science and engineering as we have learned them in an earlier course perhaps,
developing a framework, which helps us understand the present day scenario and
concrete engineering. And go through some special issues in special or high performance
concretes in the quality control from the point of view, primarily of performance base
thinking, durability and maintenance of concrete structures.

439
(Refer Slide Time: 00:50)

Now, this is something, which we have seen earlier is an outline of the course. What is
going to be done or what is being done in the course?

(Refer Slide Time: 00:58)

We gone through these as well we have defined, normal concrete and now we are trying
to study some special concretes, where mineral admixtures and chemical admixtures are
an integral part.

440
(Refer Slide Time: 01:12)

This is our traditional concrete, where we have a normal slice, which is modeled as made
up of coarse aggregates, fine aggregates, cement and water. And of course, some amount
of air in the system, which if it is pooled at one place or lumped at one place, as far as the
volume is concerned gives rise to figure, which is something like this, where gravel and
sand and cement and water perhaps mineral admixtures like fly ash and so on. All get
lumped in to one place and we have a volumetric balance, where the absolute volumes of
all these components add to a certain volume, which we normally take to be about a
thousand liters or a cubic meter; that is what we take for proportioning of concrete
mixtures.

441
(Refer Slide Time: 01:59)

Now, this is the definition of paste mortar and concrete, and we have seen the reason for
changing them or modifying them. Where we say that, it is not only cement but other
materials, which have a fineness closed to that of cement; may also be considered part of
the paste as far as the properties of fresh concrete occurs, on in some form even though
those other mineral admixture, may or may not contribute as effectively as cement, as far
as the strength development is concerned.

Similarly, as far as sand is concerned, we would like to reiterate that, there can be other
material such as ground copper, slag and so on; which can be used as partial replacement
of natural sand. The idea basically being that, the properties of that material, which
should be as close or should be close enough to that of natural sand or normal sand; as it
is used in ordinary concrete constructions. In fact the similar, statement can be made as
far as, coarse aggregate is concerned, because there is always a possible day, that
somebody like to use recycled aggregate and so on. As coarse aggregate and therefore,
that helps us reduce the quantity of naturally occurring coarse aggregate and rock or
sometimes use concrete or make concrete only with artificial coarse aggregate.

So, this definitions which we reiterated or which we stated at the beginning of the coarse,
in terms of normal concrete construction is the one that is now under review and we are
talking of special concretes and we have talked about self-consolidating concrete, and we

442
have seen how some of these new materials or mineral admixtures are used and their
addition, how it effects or in facts the properties of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:06)

Now, continuing from there we get back to our discussion on special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:11)

Where, we are interested to take a look at, how a concrete becomes a special in terms of
materials and proportioning in terms of the mixing method, transportation method,
placing method or the kind of vibration, which is carried out the kind of curing, which is
carried out and so on. So, we have basically stated that for all these processes, there is a

443
certain normal range of operation and anything beyond; that is something, which will
make the concrete or the concreting operation as special. So we have seen that kind of
thing happening in the case of, self-consolidating concrete and we also, discussed this
matter, where we were talking about high performance concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:59)

Now, today we are continuing our discussion. Now these are some of the special
concretes or a concreting operations; that we are talked about use of self-compacting
concrete, fiber reinforced concrete, mass concrete, underwater concrete, roller compacted
concrete and shotcrete. So these are some of example, which can be considered as
special concretes or concretes in operation.

444
(Refer Slide Time: 05:25)

Now, in our discussion today, we will talk largely of fiber reinforced concrete, having
completed some kind of a discussion on self-compacting concrete earlier.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:38)

Now, fiber reinforced concrete or FRC is used to increase the tensile strength and
toughness of concrete. We will talk of these properties, and there exact definitions as we
go along in the discussion today. This concrete or the FRC involved, the use of short
discrete randomly distributed fibers within the concrete matrix. So, these short discrete
randomly distributed fibers are an integral part of the fresh concrete and when the

445
concrete is placed, these fibers are placed along with it. It is different from the classical
reinforcement of concrete, where the steel bars are placed separately; and the concrete is
poured around it, in the case of fiber reinforced concrete. As we will talk about today,
these short fibers are parts of the concrete.

The traditional reinforcing bars or the reinforcement may or may not be there in the
concrete structure, depending on the particular application; that we are talking about as
far as the applications are concerned. We will see them later on in this discussion fiber
reinforced concrete fines applications in shotcrete, slabs, precast concrete products, and
also the pair works to avoid, falling of concrete from repair structure.

Now, how the presence of these small or short discrete fibers helps, as far as the
properties of concrete, and for example: what is mentioned, here is in terms of avoiding
falling or falling off of the concrete, in the case of repaired structures; how that really
happens? Is something which we need to talk about and we will do that in our discussion
today.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:23)

Now, once again let us take a look at the slice of concrete, and in addition to the coarse
aggregate and the mortar and so on, which is present in a normal concrete. We also have
the presence of short random fibers as part of this matrix in a fiber reinforced concrete.

446
(Refer Slide Time: 07:48)

This here is a picture, of the space, of the prism with fibers in the concrete matrix. So, we
can see the small fiber is sticking out, of the concrete. And if we see these three pictures
here, we see that these concrete prism have been loaded and we have large crack widths
at one end, and in spite of these large cracks, this specimen or the prism has not
completely collapsed.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:33)

If we test our normal concrete prism, much as what we do in the case of determining the
flexures strength of concrete? For example, we are testing it like this, what we would

447
normally get is at a very small deformation, here this would just break into 2 parts much
like, what happens, when we apply a load on a chalk? So, it completely disintegrates.
This does not happen in the case of a fiber reinforced material or a composite and it can
sustain large degrees of deformation of cracks at the bottom. In fact, one of the measure
that, some of you would like to know, in fact this is an exaggerated version of, how a
fiber reinforced concrete prism would behave? Where it is loaded in flexure, so in spite
of these large cracks being formed here; because of the presents of these fibers, the
specimen does not completely collapse.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:06)

So, continuing with our discussion as far as fiber reinforced concretes are concerned. It
can be considered to be a composite material, made of traditional concrete or normal
concrete, which is mixed with short discrete randomly distributed fibers and there is a
meaning each of these words, short discrete and randomly distributed the fibers. As we
will see later on are basically short; they are discrete, that is the fiber do not lumped
together; they do not behave as a group together and so on. And they are randomly
distributed, that is in all the three directions. We do not take any special care or we do
not use a method by which we seek to orient the fiber in a particular direction or two
directions and so on.

So, if we do that is also possible but in our discussion today, we will confine our self to a
situation, where the fibers are randomly distributed and we have not taken any measures

448
in order to control the direction, in which the fibers are oriented, because it is really the
direction of these fibers, which control or governs or determines the property of concrete
in that particular direction.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:22)

For example: In this matrix, if all the fibers were oriented in this direction, the there is no
way, that this can be sustained, because there is no reinforcement; that is happening in
this direction. So, we must make an assumption and that is what we will do and
therefore, for normal concretes or normal fiber reinforced concretes. We make an
assumption, that all the fibers that occurs in the matrix are distributed in all the three
directions.

449
(Refer Slide Time: 11:55)

Now, the fibers present in the matrix are used within concrete, to improve the crack
propagation characteristics of the basically brittle concrete matrix. As we have seen
earlier, or concrete matrix is brittle and upon application of flexural load, the bottom
which is subjected to tensile strength collapses, this is what is prevented by the presents
of small fibers across the crack spaces, and gives us better properties in the post cracking
space.

Now, as far as the properties of the fiber reinforced concrete are concerned; they are
governed obviously by the properties of the concreted cell, which is governed in turn by
to water cement ratio or the maximum size, the aggregate, the amount of sand used and
so on, and so forth and then the properties of the fibers and the properties of the fibers
are related to, what material we use as far as the fibers concerned, it could be steel, glass,
carbon, polyethylene and so on. The shape of the fiber indented, crimped, plain, the size,
which is the length, and the diameter of the fiber, the total content which is usually
expressed in terms of volume and orientation and dispersion. So, these are the kind of
parameters based on, which we can estimate or determine the properties of a fiber
reinforced concrete.

450
(Refer Slide Time: 13:29)

This here is a diagrammatic representation of matrix concretes and fibers. So in this

picture, here we are showing continuous fibers, where fibers are long and continuous and
oriented in a certain direction; and we have concrete matrix surrounding it. Whereas, in
this case we have short discrete fibers, which are randomly oriented and we are talking
of this particular picture as fiber reinforced concrete, as we shall talk about today.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:06)

Now, small introduction to, the theory of strength of brittle materials; we will not go into
too much detail of this. The Griffith Theory tells us, that the tensile strength; it is

451
basically related to the size of the defects, which are present within the material, which is
c and of course, e and gamma, which are the constant.

So, as far as concrete is concerned; it has a low tensile strength, due to the existence of
large amount of cracks in the matrix. So, the concrete itself is brittle, because we have a
very large value of c, that is the defects in concrete are many and very large. And now if
we are able to reduce, the size of cracks within the concrete, the tensile strength can be
increased; now if that is not possible, we try to bridge the cracks or these defects and that
is the approach, which is adopted in the case of design and use of fiber reinforce
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:17)

This here is a clearer picture, what I was trying to tell you, that when it is comes to fibers
and concrete being put together; this here is the defect, which will cause the concrete to
have very low tensile strength, if we bridge this crack with the fibers, that are shown here
then the effect of this crack or defect will be reduced to a large extent. If we are able to
reduce this spacing of these fibers by adding more fibers, then we get a more effective
control or a more effective, addition to address the problem that might arise out of this
effect and we get more and more tensile strength of course, there is a limit, to which it
can be really improved.

452
(Refer Slide Time: 16:12)

Now, if you look at this picture. Here it shows fibers the coarse aggregate and the voids
so obviously it is not possible that the fibers will always cross these defects but one thing
you should understand or try to remember, from this picture is that the voids and micro
cracks; so that the cracks initiated, that is one the presence of fibers prevents cracks,
elongation and increase of crack, width and increasing strength by the fiber spacing.

And other things, which we must understand or try to look at this picture, and draw the
conclusion is the following, whether or not the addition of fibers is effective in terms of
controlling or addressing this problem on account of internally present defects would
also depend on the relative size, of these fibers, in relation to the size of the coarse
aggregate, if we use very small fibers and large aggregates, it is not likely that, we will
get a large improvement in terms of the tensile strength of concrete. And at the same
time, if we use very large fibers or very long fibers, there are other problems that are
associated with that and we shall see something related to, that as we go along in this
specification.

453
(Refer Slide Time: 17:52)

So, all things considered a fiber length of, at least 1.5 times the maximum, size of
aggregates. Considering, the ease of fiber dispersion is one guideline, that we can use
while a fiber length of 30 mm or more is generally recommended; and that is basically
addressing the fact, that for a lot of concrete construction. The maximum size of
aggregate used is in the, neighborhood of about 20 mm, so 30 mm is a ball park number,
which basically says that, as far as normal concrete construction is concerned fibers,
which have a length of about 30 mm are good enough, as far as there users concerned in
fiber reinforce concrete.

Fibers of about 60 mm length with a reinforce, with reinforcing effect are used in slab.
So we can use larger fibers but 30 mm is recommended. If we use 60 mm, the
reinforcing effect is higher. The reinforcing effect of fibers, essentially depends on the
length of the fiber and that is something, which we will talk about little later.

454
(Refer Slide Time: 18:59)

Here are some examples or pictures of fibers, steel, polypropylene and so on. This is the
normal slice of concrete or a slice of normal concrete with coarse aggregates embedded
in the mortar matrix, and that is what we have been seen saying some of our pictures.
Now, these are some of the fibers, which are used as far as short fibers are concerned in
fiber reinforce concrete, now these 2 are steel fibers, this is the glass fiber; and this is the
polyethylene fiber.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:53)

455
So, you can see that these two steel fibers, this fiber here for example, is this fiber here
for example, is a crimped, that is it has a shape, which is something like this compare to
that these fibers are straight. Even though if we look closely, there are deformations on
the surface to increase the bond strength.

Similarly, if we look at the glass fibers, these are extremely short, just for by away
illustration; they are very short, they are very small and these are glass fibers, which for
illustration have been taken as very small, very short and we can imagine, that the
reinforcing effect of these glass fibers, as far as the concrete matrix like something like
this, could be very small. These here are polyethylene fibers, which are very small in
diameter, the aspect ratios and so on, can be obviously calculated depending on the
length and diameter of these fibers.

This is an illustration of, how fibers tend to form and group as a ball? When they are
mixed with concrete? So, if we do not take special measures of ensuring, that this ball is
broken and individual fibers are actually dispersed within the concrete matrix the
effectiveness of fibers is very small.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:22)

Fibers that we use in fiber reinforce concrete and this length is related to the maximum
size of the aggregate. So, I leaving with your intuition to understand, how the aspect ratio
is very important characteristic in determining whether or not a fiber will be effective in
terms of its ability, to contribute to the tensile strength of concrete is concerned.

456
(Refer Slide Time: 21:53)

This here is a simplified model or fiber reinforce concrete. If we have a fiber, which is
embedded in concrete, the way it is shown here, 1 by 2 the fiber that is l by 2 is
embedded in concrete, 1 by 2 of it is the sticking out, and a force t is applied to fill this
fiber out, this is resisted by the development of bond of friction within the concrete and
that is to the extent of surface area and the length of embedment.

Now, there are three possible modes, of failure fiber fails in tension; that is the force is
such that the embedment is very strong but the fiber gets raptured here, so the is the fiber
in tension, then it can fail by way of interfacing bond, that is this bond here is not
sufficient and the fiber gets pulled out from the concrete, so this is closed to a pull out of
the fiber. And, then there is a possibility of the concrete itself failure, that is the fiber is
strong, the bond is very strong and by pulling, this out it causes failure along the concrete
or it causes failure within concrete cells, this is something, which is very common, which
we see in a garden.

457
(Refer Slide Time: 23:38)

For example, let us try to understand, this with an analogy, which we see in a garden, if
we have a small blade of grass, which is embedded in the soil and we try to pull it out,
one thing that can happen is that, the blade fails, that is we have a failure here. The
second thing, that can happen is that the blade is pulled out, that is this part that is pulled
out the third thing, that can happen is that the soil fails and that is what happens, when
we get this whole amount of soil coming out of the ground along with this blade, so
precisely this is what is going on, when we are having a fiber embedded in concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:39)

458
Either the fiber fails in tension or in the at the interface, get the concrete or it causes
failure in the concrete itself. Now, let us try to look at a simplified equation, where this
force t is equal to sigma times phi d square by 4, which is the diameter, which is the
cross sectional area of the fiber and this has to be compared with the phi d, which is a
circumference times the length of embedment and the bond strength, which is developed.
So, once we do that kind of analysis, we see that l by d critical and that is the aspect ratio
is really related to the properties like this, which is the sigma, which is the tensile
strength of the fiber and tau, which is the bond strength for that particular fiber, so it is
the bond strength. So, it is the aspect ratio, which is related to the maximum tensile and
the bond stresses, and that is how it is importance of and that is, what is the importance
of the l by t parameter?

(Refer Slide Time: 25:52)

This here is the picture, which shows that testing of fiber reinforce concretes in a
laboratory, and we can see how these fibers, which are embedded on two sided of a
concrete specimen and there is a perspex plate, which separate these two fibers, if they
are pulled apart. We are basically trying to induce the failure here, either the fiber failure
or the pull out and soon and so forth. In fact, this gives rise to the discussion in terms of,
what is the property? which is required of the fiber, and that is something, which we
have seen that we saw the fiber that not all fibers are really smooth; some of these fibers
have some kind of crimping, so the so fiber really looks like this or sometimes, the fiber
looks like this; so these ends provide more bond strength or more encourage, to each of

459
these fibers as they are pulled out or as they are acted upon by loads, that may account
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:05)

This here as the test, which we have seen for flexural strength of concrete and that is
what, we were trying to show that, if these kind of tests are carried out normal concrete
specimen, would show very brittle behavior, when it comes to failures at this points, is
concerned which is not going to happen, when we are talking in terms of fiber reinforce
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:27)

460
This here is the load deflection diagram, as obtained from a test like this. So, if we
compare this, so if you look at this closely as far as, non-reinforced concrete or normal
concrete is concerned beyond a certain point is virtually nothing that can beyond the
certain point is virtual collapse. The concrete is simply not able to take anymore load
whereas, in the case of fiber reinforce concrete, which is this line as well as this line
depending on, how much is the fiber, what is the kind of fiber, and so on, the concrete
could be a low ductile concrete or a highly ductile concrete, a ductile concrete or a low
ductility concrete would be concrete, which has fibers, which give it some kind of a
residual strength or a residual post cracking load carrying capacity but in a case of a
highly ductile concrete, this ability is much larger.

So, there is a lot more load, that can be sustained even in the post peak region, in the case
of low ductile concretes. The amount of load that can be sustained is much smaller
compared to the peak load. We must remember this schematic or a qualitative
description of fiber reinforce concretes, when we talk about the properties of concrete in
terms of a structural design and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:04)

Now, we talked about this before is the fiber concrete is basically a combination of the
concrete itself with some fibers, the properties or composite will depend upon concrete
and the properties of the fibers.

461
(Refer Slide Time: 29:21)

The shape size content of steel fibers, now we are talking about steel fiber reinforced
concrete; that is one of the most commonly used, forms of fibers steel, is one of the most
commonly used materials. As far as short fibers is concerned and therefore, steel fiber
reinforce concrete is perhaps one of the most economical among the fiber concretes,
which is commercially used. So, the shape, size and content of techniques steel fibers is
determined according to the required, strength and deformation characteristics of the
SFRC. So it is one of those composites, now or it is fiber reinforced concrete, now
becomes one of those materials, whose properties can be actually engineered. That is, we
required a certain strength and a certain deformation characteristics and depending on
these, we choose the shape, size or the content of the steel fiber.

Now, these steel fiber are mixed either in the mixer with other materials or there is
sprayed or added at the end in the agitator truck. So, it really is a matter of choice and
engineers need to decide, what they want to do depending on the site conditions, that
either the fibers can be mixed in the mixer itself, along with other ingredients aggregate,
cement, water and so on or we can mix the concrete in the mixer and then add the fibers
later on in the agitator truck as its been moved.

Now, as far as the shape and size are concerned. We know that, the length ranges
between 20 and 60 mm. The diameters range from 0.3 to or 0.9 mm, the aspect ratio
ranges from about 32 about 100, the fiber content ranges from about 0.5 to 2 percent by

462
volume; that is the normal range, that is used among a fiber reinforced concretes and that
is translate to an equivalent of about 40 to 100 and 60 kgs per cubic meter by weight as
far as fibers are concerned in concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:28)

The slide again has a more discussion related to steel fibers, for concrete reinforcement.
They could be sheared fibers, cut fibers, machine fibers and having a certain dimension
in terms of 0.5 and 0.5, which is the diameter or the size of the fiber in terms of the cross
section and varying from 25 mm to about say 60 mm and length, and the most popular
form of fibers, for structure uses steel and glass fibers are generally used for non-
structural applications, concrete pavement, shotcrete repair and concrete products; these
are some of the target applications.

463
(Refer Slide Time: 32:08)

(Refer Slide Time: 32:14)

464
(Refer Slide Time: 32:27)

Now, these are pictures of machined fibers and the process, that we get them from this
here, is cut wires and you will notice these edges, where there are indentations to
increase the bond and we have sheared fibers, which again have surface some
irregularity of the surface again to promote bond.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:36)

Now, this here shows, how the cracking load ratio changes as the fiber content? now
what is the cracking load ratio? The cracking load ratio is the load at, which the cracking
takes place in a flexural. The cracking takes place or the flexural cracking takes place as

465
the load is applied taking, the non-fiber reinforce concrete as the base, how much does
this load change as the fiber content is increased. So, as we can see that increase is more
or less linear as far as steel fiber is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:18)

Another slide here shows, the tensile stress strain relationship or steel fiber concretes or a
steel fiber reinforced concretes. And we can see that, as far as the stress strain
relationships are concerned the post cracking. So if the cracking take place at these point,
at these levels of strain and these levels of the load post cracking, the load carrying
capacity is much higher in the case of fiber reinforced concretes and as we increase the
fiber content, we get more and more load carrying capacity or the residual load carrying
capacity, beyond the failures stress indeed the actual variation, as far as the stress strain
curve is concerned would depend on the type of fiber, that is used the length aspect ratio
and so on and so forth.

466
(Refer Slide Time: 34:18)

Now, coming the properties of steel fiber reinforced concrete. Once again, a steel fibers
may be assumed to carry, the stresses only after cracking of the concrete, and thus the
tensile strength of steel fiber reinforced concretes may be taken to be the cracking or the
tensile strength of the matrix concrete itself, and it is only beyond, that the fibers coming
to play. Addition of fibers therefore, may not lead to substantial increase in the
compressive or the tensile strength though the post cracking behavior, is a completely
different story. As we have seen in the previous slides, that is not so much the change in
the cracking load but the post cracking load ability to continue to resist deformation.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:06)

467
Whereas the flexural and bond strength and specially the toughness of steel fiber
concrete, increases as the fiber content increases. The compressive and tensile strengths
do not change with the fiber content, and fibers obviously come into play, only after the
matrix has cracked and these terms toughness is something, which we need to define
precisely and we will do that, in next few slide obviously. This strength of the concrete
as far as water cement ratio and so on, is concerned that theory or that understanding
remains the same and therefore, the compressive strength itself that is the maximum load
carrying capacity, that does not really change, even if the steel is reinforced with short
fibers.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:54)

This picture essentially shows, the defection measurement of steel fiber reinforced beams
for evaluation of toughness, and as far as performance criteria has concerned.

468
(Refer Slide Time: 36:03)

We can have some of these terms, that is the total toughness toughness ratio equivalent
flexural strength and the residual flexural strength ratio, which is used, so the total
toughness really refers to this area under the load deformation curve measured up to a
certain point or up to a certain level of the deformation or deflection compared to this for
the same graph, for the same load deflection graph the toughness ratio is a ratio of this
area. Here to the ratio, which is defined or to the area, which is defined by a rectangle
enclosing p max and delta naught.

Equivalent flexural strength is nothing but this value here, which is defined in terms of
this area being equal to this rectangular; the area enclosed by this rectangle being equal
to the area actually under the load deflection curve and similarly, we can define the
residual flexural strength ratio in terms of a cyclic loading, we can define the residual
flexural strength ratio, when we carry out a cyclic test, that is we take it to up a certain
level peak load bring it down and the next time, we take the load at what point as it start
reducing, that is what is the ratio, we are talking about the p naught or p 0 divided by the
p max, where p max is the maximum load sustained in the first cyclic. So, these are some
of the terms that designer, would be more interested to know, when he carrying out the
design of a steel fiber reinforced concrete beam or any other element or member.

469
(Refer Slide Time: 38:13)

As I have mentioned, before the load deflection curves, that we are talking about and
which are at the center of our discussion in terms of the properties, of fiber concretes are
concerned these would depend on the volumes of fibers. For example, this here is the
variation, if we vary the volume from 0 to say 2 percent or for the different kinds of
fibers, so there are these five kinds of fibers, which have been used and the area under
the load deflection curve as measured up to vary level of deformation here or deflection
depends on the type of fiber or the nature of fiber, that is used. So, it really a combination
of the nature of fiber, as well as the fiber content, that determines the toughness, which is
defined the in terms of the area under the load deflection curve measured up to a certain
predetermined point of the deflection.

470
(Refer Slide Time: 39:18)

This slide, here is an extension of steel fiber reinforced concrete being used in a normally
reinforced beam; so these steel beams have normal reinforcement, that is you have a
cross section, we have normal reinforcement here whereas, in the case of a fiber
reinforced steel beam, in addition to the normal reinforcement present, at the beam the
concrete itself is steel fiber reinforced.

In this case, the concrete is plain concrete. The amount of reinforcement that is here,
which is actually the reinforcement to the beam is constant or this is the same. So if you
look at the failure patterns or the waves in which these two beams are failed the steel
fiber reinforced concrete has a much higher shear capacity compared to the plain
concrete. And as far as, this beam is concerned it really does not even fail here, we have
a failure in shear, which is not something, which we see in the concrete made with steel
fiber reinforced concrete.

471
(Refer Slide Time: 40:36)

This picture, here is an extension from what we saw, if we look at the moment carrying
capacity versus the a by d ratio, now the a by d ratio is the ratio, which defines the span
to the depth; the depth of the beam and the span, that we are testing. So, as this span is as
the a by d is increased. We know from our understanding of reinforced concrete
structures, that there is a certain dip, here where the shear is really predominating and
therefore, very often the a by d is as far as normal reinforced concrete beams are
concerned or required to be higher than a certain number. So that, we can ensure proper
flexural behavior and we do not expect shear failures.

Now, when it comes to steel fiber reinforced concrete beams, where it is cut wire or
sheared fibers this dip ,that we have at an a by d or say 2.5 or something is not really
seen. So the moment carrying capacity really remains the same, that is the concrete is not
failing and it is only really the mean reinforcement, which is governing the capacity of
the beam and that is the way, it should be as far as reinforced concrete beams are
concerned.

472
(Refer Slide Time: 42:14)

Now, this picture here shows the, elements of design of a steel fiber reinforce concrete
flexural member, where the top part is concrete and we have a variation of strain stress
and so on. And on the tensile side, we have the force been taken only by the mean
reinforcement. Now, in the case of a steel fiber reinforced concrete beam, this part here
is definitely not 0, that is the capacity in concrete as far as its ability to carry tensile loads
is concerned is not 0 and that is what changes but behaviour of the SFRC been
completely, as we have seen in a example in the previous slides, and that is something,
which the designer needs know, when we calculates the capacity is in designs those
needs.

So, the net tensile force for example, in this case in the case of a steel fiber reinforced
concrete beam is acting at a level, which is slightly higher than the location of the
reinforce in powers and by how much higher would depend on, what is the total tensile
load, that the concrete is carrying? so these two together decide, what the, so called
momentum will be for those of you, who have a better understanding of the design of
normal concrete structures of the design of concrete structures using normal concrete and
hands are it the flexural design or techniques design are used, would appreciated some of
these points a little better.

473
(Refer Slide Time: 44:01)

Now, let us come to some of the engineering properties of concrete and how they
change? as far as the presence of fiber is concerned, so for the same consistency in
cement content, water content and s by a; they need to be increased, the water needs to
be increased, the cement content therefore, goes up and the s by a goes up, now s by a
going up, we know basically means the mortar content goes up and that is something,
which we need to have in order for the mortar space to be able to support the additional
burden of the presence of fibers information is the presence of fibers tends of hamper,
the missing transportation placing in consolidation and that something, which we need to
taking to account, when we designing the concrete itself.

And also the concrete structures so coefficients of variation of compressive strength may
be taken to the same, because that really does not change the flexural bond strength and
toughness of the steel fiber reinforced concrete, increase as the fiber content increases,
and there is not much change, which needs to be taken into account as far as the designer
is concerned in terms of the compressive and tensile strengths.

474
(Refer Slide Time: 45:18)

As far as, the considerations for fiber length is concerned, we have already gone through
that and we know that, they should be sufficiently long compared to the maximum
aggregate size, to have the desired effect. If the fibers as short their effect on the
workability is smaller and that is something, which we would individually know. We
already said that, the fiber should be 1.5 times, the maximum already aggregates and 6
30 to 60 mm size, as far as length is concerned and in case the fibers exceed 30 to 40
mm. A special care need to be taken in terms of proportioning, the method of mixing
transportation and so on, is concerned to ensure that, there is no formation of fiber balls
and that something, which we will see in later slide.

475
(Refer Slide Time: 46:10)

As far as proportioning of fiber reinforced concrete, as far as steel fiber reinforced

concrete is concerned, we should keep the water content to a minimum. But, we should
remember that, each fiber content entrains are requires, that the water being increase by
about 20 kgs per cubic meters. So, if we are working with a water content of about say
100 and 65 or 100 and 70 kgs per cubic meter of water, if we add some fiber to it, it
might go up by about 20 kgs and we might land up with water content of 185 and 90 for
a 1 percent fiber in the concrete matrix.

So far as, the fibers are between 0.5 and 2 percent, we need not bother about any special
mixing method and since, the addition of fibers increases, the water content it is proved
and try to use water reducing admixtures or high range water reducing admixtures in
order to control that, increase in the water content. We might like to increase, the super
plasticizer dosage, so that we do not have to increase, the water content and yet get the
same amount of workability in a fiber reinforced concrete.

476
(Refer Slide Time: 47:27)

I have already mentioned, that for the workability in fiber reinforced concrete, the sand
aggregates ratio needs to be increase, that is we need of basically higher amount of
mortar in the system. The shape, size and content of steel fiber contents may be
determined considering, the strength and deformation, that is required a steel fiber
reinforced concrete can be proportion much in the same manner, as we did with normal
concretes and keeping in view, that is there is keeping in view things like workability
and strength and seeing, how much is that initial water demand but we must remember
that high unit water content and the sand aggregate ratio could induce bleeding, and
segregation in a concrete and also hamper. The mixing transportation placing and
consolidation and these are thing, which we need to address, when we tried to talk in
terms of proportioning of steel fiber reinforce concrete or a fiber reinforced concrete in
general.

477
(Refer Slide Time: 48:27)

As far as, mixing and transportation is concerned of course, the first thing to remember is
that the mix should be thoroughly homogeneous, a mixing process is such that we do not
have fibers just in one place or the other. However, we need an increased energy to mix
the fiber reinforced concrete, because the fibers add to the extent of energy; that is
required. So, the energy demand as far as the mixing is concerned increases, in fact it
could be 2 to 4 times the energy required for normal concrete and therefore we may need
to have forced action batch mixers, instead of gravity mixers, the time of mixing may
have to be increased and so on. And that is needs to be determine experimentally
depending on, the type of fiber; that we are using and we have already talked in terms of
addition of fibers through dispensers and so on. We should also make sure that, when
fibers are added in an agitating truck, the concrete should be mixed at high speeds to
ensure proper dispersion of the fiber and its distribution throughout the concrete mass,
and as far as the balling is concerned, we have already talked about it and we will see
later on.

478
(Refer Slide Time: 49:45)

It may also be remembered that, the pumping loads are greater than those for normal
concretes and therefore, the pipe layout, that we used, when we were pumping concrete
from one place to another needs to be appropriately design, the bends and so on, need to
take into account, that the fact that concrete may not flow that easily or it will require
additional pumping effort.

Flexible pipe section, could be particularly vulnerable to abrasion, because of the

presence of fibers within the concrete, what we are saying is that, if we have a pipe and if
concrete is flowing through this, if fibers are present in the concrete, then they could
cause abrasion, then they could cause abrasion in the lining of the flexible pipe and
therefore, what something and therefore, that something which the engineer needs to
keep in mind the diameter, the material, the pipe thickness and so on of the pipes used in
the pumping operation should be carefully chosen.

479
(Refer Slide Time: 50:46)

This here is the picture of the fiber balling in the case of steel fiber concretes. So, we see
that these are the kind of balls, that the fibers may form unless precautions have taken to
disperse the fibers throughout the concrete matrix.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:06)

So, reviewing the properties towards the closure of the discussion, improve properties in
terms of tension flexure and shear improved crack resistance ductility and impact high
crack arresting capability, reduces the crack width and improves fatigue strength of the

480
concrete higher compressive toughness at compressive failure and high flexural
toughness at bending indicates, its high resistance to impact in explosive loads.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:30)

These here are some of the useful references for fiber reinforce concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:38)

And of course, we can continue our discussion, this list is binomial exhaustive and the lot
of publish literature is available.

481
(Refer Slide Time: 51:54)

As far as, fiber reinforced concretes are concerned and before we close the discussion for
the day, let us try to see, what we need to do additionally in order to understand some of
the concepts in fiber reinforced concrete systems, that we studied today first thing
obviously is to study, some of the fiber is used in fiber reinforced concrete even though,
we some of the fibers today, that is not exhaustive there are different companies, which
manufactures the fibers the fiber vary in their length the diameter, the material itself and
so on.

We could study some real applications of fiber reinforced concrete, from the point of
view of mix proportions properties etcetera. If talked in terms of the effect of fiber
addition in terms of workability, toughness and so on. As a lot of published information,
which tells us quantitative details is to, how much fiber addition needs work kind of an
improvement or, what is the quantitative scale of improvement in terms of toughness,
increase in the cracking load and so on, when there of course, codes which often given
empirical formulae for estimating properties such as the tensile and flexural strength
what we could try to do is to see if the codes, what the codes say, about whether the same
equations or the same estimating methods, can be used in the case of fiber reinforced
concrete or there is a difference, for the case of fiber reinforced concretes.

And of course, what are the available codes and specifications, that can be used as
references, some of them. We try to see as far as, the plan is concerned there are others in

482
the US and Europe, which help us design for the reinforced concrete structures and the
comparison of the provisions, there could be very helpful.

(Refer Slide Time: 53:44)

I would like to acknowledge my thanks, to the JSCE publications, which I have used in
the public in my discussion today and of course, the permission that I have for using
materials by Professor Uomoto of the public works research institute, to use that material
in the discussion today with the course and with gut, we come to an end of the discussion
today.

Thank you.

483
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 15
High strength concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

And welcome to this course, this lecture on concrete engineering and technology. In the
course as we know, we are trying to study the basic principles underlying concrete
science and engineering, developing a framework which helps us understand the present
scenario in concrete engineering with the use of different mineral admixtures, different
chemical admixtures, and construction technologies and so on.

We are going through some issues in special and high performance concretes and their
quality control, testing; which includes performance base thinking, durability of these
concretes, and maintenance of the structures made using these concretes.

484
(Refer Slide Time: 01:10)

To reiterate; normally concrete can be taken to be a mixture of coarse aggregate, fine

aggregate, cement. Ordinary Portland cement is what we refer to most of the time in the
traditional sense. And, water even though it is becoming increasingly common to use
mineral and chemical admixtures to obtain desired properties in fresh and hardened
concrete, and understanding of the basics always helps in building a foundation which is
required to understand some of the special concretes which we will be talking about
today.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:53)

485
Now, this slide we have seen before. It is again viewing concrete as a multiphase
composite which shows that, if we take a slice of normal concrete, what we see is that,
concrete can be looked upon as aggregates or well course aggregates embedded in a
system of mortar.

Now, if this was modeled to be like this and this was modeled to be like this. Then,
concrete is essentially a mixture of gravel, sand, cement, water and air which when
mixed gives you concrete. The properties of fresh concrete, properties of hardened
concrete are basically determined by the properties of the constituents and the proportion
that we use.

We must remember, in proportioning concrete we have seen that, at the end of it all the
constituents of concrete should contribute a certain amount in terms of volume to the
1000 liters or a cubic meter. And that is what we get as unit content of different
materials.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:13)

This again is just definitions which we have seen before. Cement and water is paste;
paste and sand is mortar; mortar and course aggregate is concrete. There is a reason to
look at it once again today. Whether we want to change some of these ideas, whether
cement and water alone should be called paste and so on and so forth, we shall see as we
go along.

486
(Refer Slide Time: 03:38)

This again is the broad outline of the course which talks of fundamentals of concrete,
proportioning concrete mixes, stages in construction, special concretes, mechanisms of
deterioration, reinforcement, material used in concrete and maintenance. And today, the
discussion focuses on special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:00)

What is a special concrete? And, we have tried to answer the question before. It could be
based on materials that we used in the concrete, it could be based on the properties of the
concrete that we are talking about. A concrete could become special because, the method

487
of placing or casting or curing of that concrete is something different; or the environment
in which the concrete is cast or placed is different.

What this clearly shows is that, in order for a concrete to be special it has to be different
from normal. And therefore, for the materials, properties, the method of casting, the
environment of casting. For each of these issues we must have what we will define or
what we understand is normal. If any of those conditions changes then, the concrete
becomes special, the concreting method becomes special.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:07)

Now, as far as material is concerned, apart from course aggregate, fine aggregate, cement
and water. We could use fibers, we could use mineral admixtures. Even if we assume
that using mineral admixtures like flyash or blast furnace slag has become common
practice either, in the form of blended cements or as additives in concrete itself. There is
a special issue involved when we use high volumes of flyash and that is possible and is
done in certain specific applications.

Similarly, properties: We talk of properties of concrete in terms of strength, workability,

durability. Now, strength is the property that is supposed to be representative of concrete.
Most concrete engineers or designers, they talk in terms of characteristics strength of
concrete and they say well m 40, m 50 and so on.

488
So, what is the normal range? And if it is higher than that then, it is special concrete in
terms of high strength concrete. At times we also try to develop low strength material
that need not be used for reinforced concrete construction but, has certain other
applications. So, that again is a special concrete.

Similarly, workability: Depending on the method of construction that we use. If we are

using normal methods where, concrete is carried by wheel barrows or in pans manually
then, we need a certain amount of workability. But, if we are trying to pump the concrete
then, we need another kind of workability. We need the concrete to be flowing
sometimes. So, that is what makes it special.

Durability is a very different kind of property. And attention on durability as a property

of concrete is not all that hold. Even though the importance of the different parameters
such as, the water cements ratio or the cement content, type of cement used and their
relationship with the environment in which the concrete structure is placed, is age-old.
Specifications did say, what are the limits of water cement ratio? What are the strength
requirements from the point of view of durability? Off late however, there is an emphasis
on trying to test durability more directly rather than depending only on strength as an
indirect measure of durability.

So, this again high durability concrete is a special concrete. As far as methods of
construction are concerned: Shortcreting where, the concrete is gonited on to a surface
without a formwork. Where the concrete is compacted using vibratory rollers. For
example, in the construction of roads. These are concretes which call for a special
attention. As far as environment in which the concrete is placed under water, hot
weather, cold weather, these are situations which call for a special attention as far as
concrete and concreting procedures are concerned.

489
(Refer Slide Time: 08:59)

Now, let us look at examples of special concretes. Several of them: self-compacting

concrete, fiber reinforced concrete, mass concrete, high strength concrete, underwater
concrete, roller compacted concrete, shotcrete and that list can go on and on. Now, these
are all different concretes or special concretes because of one or more of the reasons that
we discussed in the previous slide; in terms of materials used, in terms of the method of
construction, in terms of the properties or in terms of the environment.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:37)

490
Having said that, it is not possible to develop a special concrete purely based on one of
the issues involved or is just not that if we material. Concrete engineering involves from
another point of view several aspects. One of them is materials and proportioning .What
is the kind of materials we use? What is the proportion that we use? What is the process
of mixing the concrete? What kind of mixture, volume of mixer, method of mixing, time
of mixing? How is the concrete transported, agitator truck, conveyer belt and so on?
How is it placed? How it vibrated, form vibrated, internally vibrated, not vibrated at all?
How it is cured, curing compounds, membranes, gunny bags, under water and so on.

So, these considerations are important when we talk of concrete. Now, when we talk of
special concretes. This whole thing is interrelated. So, if we are talking of a special
concrete from the point of view of strength then, not only the materials and proportioning
of materials is different but, that has implications in terms of mixing, it has implications
in terms of placing, it has implications in terms of vibration and curing. So, only a
comprehensive way of all these issues will help us properly handle special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:31)

I have not even talked of, what is high performance concrete. Let me share with you a
small diagration. In the late 80s and early 90s that is 1980s and 1990s, the high
performance concrete has a term in concrete engineering been being widely touted and
there was a school of thought that at the end of it the performance of concrete is basically
strength.

491
So, high strength concrete is the high performance concrete. So, performance and
strength were related, were supposed to be almost synonymous. But, there was another
school of thought or another school of research as engineers who were working on other
parameters. Workability or a concrete which did not require to be vibrated and that was
going to help us produce concrete of a more uniform quality. That was touted as
performance.

So finally, what has happened is, that no matter what parameter we use, it could be
workability, it could be strength, it could be durability. So long as the performance of
that concrete is higher then, what is normally expected on that parameter, the concrete
can still be called high performance concrete. Now, we have talked of these examples as
of special concretes. And today, we will focus on high strength concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:30)

Now, let us take a look at this picture once again. Concrete as we said is a coarse
aggregate embedded in mortar. Now, what is happening as far as strength is concerned?
In normal concretes, the strength can be determined by either the strength of the coarse
aggregate or the strength of the mortar or the strength of the intermediate transition zone.
And that is what is shown here. And that forms just around the aggregates. That is the
interface between, the aggregates and the mortar.

Now, as the strength of this mortar phase is increased. And, how do we increase it? We
know that the only way that, that strength can be increased is by reducing the water and

492
cement ratio. That is, either put more cement or useless water. So, as we increase the
strength of the mortar, we get higher and higher strengths. So long as the ITZ does not
become a bottleneck.

So, in high strength concretes, we are talking of a situation where the mortar phase is
very strong. Now, the strength of the mortar phase itself depends on the porosity and the
pore size distribution. More porosity than the pore size distribution perhaps.

So, in high strength concretes we try to control the porosity, which we know is related to
the water cement ratio. Once we keep this in mind, that in high strength concretes we
have reduced porosity because we use very low water cement ratios. The strength of
mortar phase is much larger or much more than in traditional concretes. The ITZ is also
stronger, there is less bleeding in the concrete. And therefore, the ITZ found is not that
higher in water cement ratio. Then, we will be able to appreciate and discuss the
properties, the construction method, the proportioning and so on of high strength
concretes with the lot more ease.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:17)

Now, once we talk of high strength concretes, we must remember that there is no
universal definition of high strength. High strength simply means high strength. But then,
there are different norms of what will be called or what may be called high strength. For
example: Japan society of civil engineers puts down a level of characteristics strength of
60 to 100 Newton’s per millimeter square to be treated as high strength concretes. IS

493
456- The code in India mentions 3 categories of strength: Ordinary, which is M10 to
M20 or well m 10 to m 20; standard, which is M25 to M55 and high strength, which is
M60 to M80 concrete.

So, we should remember that specifications such as JSCE and IS 456, they define
characteristic strength on the basis of tests of cylinders and cubes and the grade cannot
be directly compared only on numbers. The JSCE defines these values or talks of these
values in terms of cylinders with 100 mm diameter and 200 mm length.

Whereas, IS 456 talks in terms of a 150 by 150 into 150 cubes and now for the same
concrete, if we take cylindrical specimens and we take cube specimens, the strength
determined is different. Cubes are stronger by about 15 to 20 percent compare to
cylinders. And therefore, what we are talking of M80 here based on cube strength is at
about 15 to 20 percent lower as far as the Japanese standard for high strength is
concerned. That is something which we must bear in mind when we are talking of high
strength concrete, as to who is talking about high strength concrete.

What specification provisions will apply may depend on the specification from, will
depend on one specification to another. For a particular strength, one specification may
say that provisions relating to high strength concrete apply. Whereas, another may say
no, they do not apply. It is just normal concrete.

As far as concrete strength is concerned, we should also remember that concrete

structures are built in the field. They are normally not factory made products. And
therefore, the strength we are talking about, even though is based on laboratory tests of
cylinders and cubes or whatever is a specification may require. What the engineer keeps
in mind is that, finally the strength has to be achieved in the field with conditions of
transportation, placing and curing; as may be applicable in the field, the technology
which is available in the field.

And that is why different specifications which are drawn by different countries naturally,
take into account the kind of construction technology that is normally used. Nobody
stops them from using different technologies, modern methods, and old methods. But,
their specifications are written from the point of view of normal construction. And that is
what is at the back of the mind of people who writes specifications and makes a
statement as to whether or not professions for high strength concrete will apply.

494
So, so much for the definition of high strength concrete. There is no uniform definition;
there is no universal definition, and different specifications depending on different
conditions that the writers of those specifications feel like they lay down different bench
marks which will help us define high strength concrete as far as that specification is
concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:50)

Now, what are the characteristics of high strength concrete? High strength concrete is
characterized by low water cement ratio. Naturally, unless we lower the water cement
ratio, the water that is available beyond that required for hydration of cement cannot be
controlled and that excess water is the one that is responsible for the creation of pore
spaces.

So, if we are able to reduce that excess water. We have basically created a framework
where, the amount of pores generated is less. And, if the amount of pore generated is
less, the porosity is less and the strength is high. So, high strength concrete is
characterized by low water cement ratio and these low water cement ratios typically
would mean 35 percent and below.

How can we reduce the water cement ratio? One is to reduce the water content but, we
cannot reduce the water content below a certain level because that is the minimum
required for workability and so on. And therefore, the only other option that we have is

495
to increase the cement content. So, it is the high strength concrete is characterized by
high cement content or use of other powders whether, cementitious or not.

Using high cement content has its own implications in terms of heat of hydration, in
terms of economy and so on. But, since we need not only need the cement but also we
need to increase the paste content, as we will see later on in the discussion. We very
often use mineral admixtures such as, flyash or blast furnace slag or silica fume to
increase the strength. Some of these products contribute to the strength by the formation
of the CSI gel in the secondary pozzolanic reaction or they simply occupy the spaces in
the pore space reducing the porosity and else, they just contribute to the paste content by
shear presence.

Things like stone dust would bring that category. They do not possibly participate in the
pozzolanic reaction but, their fineness is such that they are or they can be counted
towards paste content which is also required to be increased as far as high strength
concrete is concerned.

One of the options we mention was reducing the water content. Now, reducing the water
content can be achieved through high doses of superplasticizers. This we have seen in
example in somewhere that if, we are able to use certain amount of super plasticizers, we
can reduce a certain amount of water demand for a given level of workability.

So, if we want to reduce the water content for a given amount of workability using super
plasticizers is almost the only way out. A lower size of the maximum size of the coarse
aggregates. As the maximum size of the coarse aggregate increases their strength tends
to reduce. The defects that are formed as a result of the presence of these large coarse
aggregates are bigger and they tend to become the weakest link in the whole strength
chain. That is why we try to reduce the maximum size of the coarse aggregate as far as
high strength concrete is concerned.

Once we reduce the size of the coarse aggregates, we increase the surface area. And once
we increase the surface area, we need more mortar, more paste and that is what relates to
the use of mineral admixture and other powders in high strength concretes. Low air
content: High strength content is also characterized by low air content. We shall see in a
slide, what are the provisions that are related to air content. There could be lot of other
properties which we can list and enumerate as far as high strength content is concerned.

496
(Refer Slide Time: 25:32)

Now, coming to the air content in high strength concrete it is known that entrainment of
air tends to decrease the strength. Even though when we do air entrained concretes or
when we make air entrained concretes for different reasons, we do not explicitly take that
into account because of other benefits that follow. But, indeed it is logical that air at the
end of it contributes or causes some kind of words which is created within the concrete.
And that obviously tends to decrease the strength at least to some extent.

Now, as far as high strength concrete is concerned, that is quite an uncertainty acceptable
position. And therefore, we must try to control that. In environments with cyclic freezing
and thawing, adequate air entrainment is needed from durability considerations. But,
prescribed lower limits on air content could be, if no freezing thawing is there then of
course, 2 percent. But, in case freezing and thawing resistance is required. Then, we can
see here that, the air content requirement goes down as the strength or the required
strength increases. So, basically the designer makes the choice that, if we push the
strength higher we have to sacrifice the air content. We cannot get the benefits of air
content all the time. So, as far as normal concrete is concerned; yes, we can have 5
percent or 6 percent air sometimes. But, the moment we get into high strength concrete
or strength ranges in this range here 60, 70, 80 and so on. Then, air content has to be
restricted.

497
(Refer Slide Time: 27:28)

Then, let us talk a little bit about some of the considerations that way on the mind of an
engineer as far as high strength concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:41)

Because of the low water cement ratio and the high cement content, high strength
concrete could have large autogenously shrinkage, large amounts of heat liberation on
account of heat of hydration.

Traditionally, mass concrete was defined as concrete where, the structure was large or
the pore volume was large to the extent that the heat dissipation that took place from the

498
surface was not sufficient to handle the heat liberated on account of heat of hydration of
cement.

In the case of high strength concrete, even with adequate surface area because the
amount of heat liberated is large, because the cement content is high. Even concrete
members of the size that would normally be not considered mass concrete, would have to
be treated with provisions of mass concrete.

Once we have mass concrete related considerations or shrinkage related considerations

arising out of the high amounts of cement, we could have cracking in the concrete, non
structure but, cracking nonetheless. And that is something which will require special
attention from the point of view of water tightness, durability and so on.

So, high strength concrete is very good as far as durability is concerned from the point of
view of the fact that porosity has been reduced. But, if we allow cracks to form in high
strength concrete then, the whole purpose is lost. And that is something which as
concrete engineers we must keep in mind that, using high strength concrete or having a
characteristic strength of concrete has a certain number is not really good enough to
ensure high durability concrete. For durability, we need to do a lot other things, other
than strength such as, controlling cracks and so on. Further, strength of concrete in the
structure itself is of concerned given the difference in curing regimes, scale of casting
and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:12)

499
In a normal concrete, if we do the quality control using cubes which have been cured
under water versus a situation where a certain member has been cast and the concrete is
sitting here. In normal circumstances, the environment here as far as temperature and so
on is concerned is not so different from this atmosphere. But, when it comes to high
strength concrete, the temperatures here are higher than normal. And therefore, when we
cured the cubes here, the curing regime of cubes which are used for quality control is
quite different from the curing regime or the environment surrounding the concrete in a
high strength concrete structure. And this difference starts becoming prominent and has
to be accounted for in our quality control procedure and also, in attempts to actually
figure out, what is the strength of concrete in the structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:29)

Now, low water cements ratio and high cement or cementitious material content are 2
sides of the same coin. And, we have already talked about that. With a smaller size of
coarse aggregates, the demand for high mortar or paste content also increases, which is
related to the above that causes us to use more powder in the system. And the concrete
becomes more homogenous in the absence of the larger coarse aggregates.

See, concrete is not a homogeneous material at the millimeter levels. It can be considered
homogeneous, if we consider reasonably larger sizes or reasonably larger unit sizes. And
that unit size which is required to be considered for concrete to be assumed to be
homogeneous is related to the maximum size of the coarse aggregate used.

500
If we are using large coarse aggregates then, we will have to consider a much larger area,
in order to say that, ok, if that area is replicated all over the place, the concrete is
homogeneous. If those of you who work or who have a background in finite element
analysis could understand this concept very simply.

In order to assume that concrete is homogeneous, we are making an assumption that the
aggregates and the mortar and the ITZ have all the same strength; which is obviously,
not true. So, if we are able to remove the larger course aggregates, the concrete becomes
more homogeneous. And also, the gap between the strength of the coarse aggregate and
the mortar matrix is narrower.

So, from normal concretes or in comparison to normal concretes, high strength concretes
are more homogeneous.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:39)

Now, this homogeneous business or this concrete becoming more homogeneous has
very interesting implications. Crack growth becomes more rapid and the concrete is more
brittle than normal strength concrete.

In fact, the crack growth in concrete and the stress strain curve. The stress strain curve is
only the relationship or a representation of how the material deforms as stresses are
applied. And as stresses are applied, more cracks are found in the system. So, in so

501
indirectly the stress strain curve is representation or can be taken to be representation of
the crack formation and crack propagation in concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:33)

Now, as far as normal concretes are concerned .If we look at a normal concrete, there are
aggregates and we have mortar and these are the aggregates. Now, if load is applied on
these, if load is applied on this concrete and we get the stress strain curve. We know that,
these are this is one of the model stress strain curves which are used.

Why is it non-linear? Because as micro cracks are formed here initially, they tend to
connect at the coarse aggregates. Some kind of crack propagation takes place through the
transition zone and then, larger cracks are formed which because the concrete to fail. In
the case of high strength concretes, this process where cracks have a stable growth does
not exist.

502
(Refer Slide Time: 35:47)

So, if we look at the stress strain curves of concrete and paste. This is the stress strain
curve for concrete and this is for paste. Because the material which is paste is more
homogeneous, the crack propagation is rapid and the material is more brittle. So, the high
strength concrete tends to come closer to paste and therefore. And that is something
which we must keep in mind when we talk in terms of properties of high strength
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:27)

503
The principles of subjects such as, fracture mechanics becomes more relevant in studying
high strength concretes. Fracture mechanics is the science that studies crack formation
crack propagation and so on. If you read the literature on fracture mechanics you will
realize that the whole assumptions, the whole set of assumptions made in fracture
mechanics are more valid when we are talking of high strength materials, more
homogeneous materials within concrete than normal concrete.

As far as properties of high strength concrete are concerned, is the fire resistance which
is reported to be suspect due to the difficulty in the movement trapped moisture at
elevated temperatures. Concrete could have some moisture trapped inside and that
moisture must be able to escape in the event of fire because the temperature is rising or
the temperature in the concrete rises.

Now, in the case of high strength concrete because of a different kind of pore system,
that water finds it difficult to escape. And if the water cannot escape, it gets converted to
vapor exerts pressure and causes local well, if you want to call them explosions which
damages the concrete. And the performance of concrete at elevated temperatures under
fire becomes suspect.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:05)

Coming to the properties of high strength concrete, Let us talk in terms of consistency
which is property for fresh concrete. Let us talk of a regime where the slump is less than
something like 21 centimeters or 200 mm or 210 mm or something like that. At this

504
level, the sand content in the content is comparable to normal concrete. And of course,
that concrete has high range water reduces and the consistency can be evaluated using
the conventional slump test and that is what is used in factory products.

Whereas, if the slump becomes more than 24 centimeters or 240 mm then, we cannot
really use slump as the measure for the consistency or workability of the cement or the
consistency or the workability of the concrete. And we get involved with the slump flow
regime. And it is what happens when we are talking of higher sand content that will
obviously imply higher mortar content which is there in the case of concretes with low
water binder ratios as high strength concretes have, using air entrained high range water
reduces and so on.

And this is the kind of concrete which is used when we are trying to develop self-
compacting high strength concretes. So, there are 2 distinct ranges of consistency: One is
where by the share use of super plasticizers or high range water reducers we are able to
get to a level where, the strength becomes high enough for the concrete to be called high
strength concrete.

In another situation, we have gone beyond that range where, slump can be used and we
must use slump flow. And depending on where we are using the concrete in the factory.
As in the factory for making precast products or whether it is being used at site. We need
to make our judgments; we need to proportion the concrete in a certain manner and so
on. Now, between 21 centimeter and 24 centimeter we need to make a judgment.

505
(Refer Slide Time: 40:28)

When it comes to construction using high strength concrete, we must remember that the
concrete is now characterized by the presence of a large amount of paste or a large
amount of mortar which makes the concrete very viscous. And once the concrete has
become viscous then, needle vibrators are less effective than in the case of normal
concrete. And therefore, the spacing and the time of vibration needs to be carefully
chosen.

The bleeding in high strength concrete is less. The surface should be protected against
drying because the surface which is susceptible or vulnerable to drying anyway. If that
happens in high strength concrete the reduction in strength could be very drastic. And
that is why we must make sure that, if a surface is protected against drying. Finishing
and travelling is difficult, pump ability should be ensured before construction. Because
once the concrete becomes viscous, pumping it is not really the same thing as pumping
normal concrete which has a certain amount of flow ability.

506
(Refer Slide Time: 41:44)

Now, let us talk a little bit about determining the strength for high strength concretes. As
far as quality control is concerned. One thing that comes to mind is the age at which the
quality control should be carried out. Since, mineral admixtures are often used along
with Portland cement, strength development at least in the initial part could be slow. And
this could be accounted for in some manner by allowing quality control test at an age
later than the normal 28 days, say 56 or 91.

Now, there are 2 arguments which go in the favor of such a treatment. One is the fact
that well, we are using mineral admixtures which possibly will have pozzolanic reactions
and contribute to strength development at a later stage. And therefore, we should do a
quality control at a later day.

Secondly, the structures are very often not really loaded in a month and therefore, there
is no harm in saying that we will wait for more strength development to occur over a
period of 2 months or 3 months before we carry out a final check as far as quality is
concerned.

Now, what is the other side of the story? The other side of the story is that, even though
even 1 month is late or 1 month is late enough, if we wait for 2 months or 3 months and
then find out that for some reason the strength has not reached the level where we
thought it would, the construction process would really been a big ((property)). And
therefore, a very careful thought has to be given.

507
Science or scientifically speaking, yes. There is reason to believe or reason to say that
yes in high strength concretes because we are using mineral admixtures, we can go ahead
and use a longer time for quality control test. And we already talked about comparing the
strength from cubes with that in the actual structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:51)

We have talked about the stress strain curve which is steeper than normal concretes.
Another thing that happens is the capacity of the machine which is required is much
higher in order to carry out the tests. As the strength increases, we need machines of
higher and higher capabilities to be able to carry out the compression test cause those
specimens whether they are cubes or cylinders to fail. And that becomes a problem in
high strength concretes because we do not have so many machines or we may not have
so many machines in the neighborhood of that construction site to be able to carry out
the test.

Not only the strength or not only the capacity but, also the stiffness of the machines and
other tests parameters. The rate of application of load, condition of the specimen, all
these things become very important when we are talking of quality control of high
strength concrete from the point of view of testing.

Now, there can be an argument which is built up for a smaller size specimen which will
help us from the point of view of the capacity of the machine required. We use, for
example, in India 150 mm cubes or somewhere we use 10 centimeters by 20 centimeter

508
cylinders. That is related to the fact that most of the time we use 20 to 25 mm kind of
aggregates. So, if we are able to reduce or if you do reduce the size of aggregates being
used as far as high strength concrete is concerned, there is a case that the size of the
specimen used may also be appropriately reduced.

We can imagine that if we are using 15 centimeter cubes, we are talking of area which is
really about say 225 centimeter square. Whereas, if you are able to reduce the cube size
to 10 centimeters by 10 centimeters, the area of the cube is only a 100 centimeter square.
This means that, if that was acceptable from the point of view of the maximum size of
the aggregates and so on, we could make do with the machine which has less than half
the capacity. So, these are the kind of things that as engineers we need to decide as far as
testing of high strength concrete is concerned.

Now, failure could be exclusive and therefore, particular care should be taken to ensure
appropriate safety checks when testing high strength concretes. Because of the brittle
nature of the high strength concrete at failure the material may explode and particles of
pieces of the concrete may fly out. And therefore, we must try to make sure that, people
in the neighborhood or the equipment in the neighborhood is not damaged. Which means
that, we mean it to have a cage in which these specimens are tested to failure.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:08)

As far as the durability of high strength concrete is concerned, aggregates should be

check for reactivity as the cement content. And therefore, the alkali content could

509
sometimes becomes high. Usually aggregates are not rigorously tested because at least
from the point of view of strength because the mortar phase is so much weaker than the
aggregate. But, not so much in the case of high strength concrete. And therefore, we have
to be more careful as far as the choice fabricates, the particles have distribution, the
strength and so on are concerned.

As far as reactivity is concerned, again they have to be checked because even marginal
aggregates can have problems because the high alkali content in the concrete because the
cement content is high. Because the dense pore structure, carbonation is not really a
problem. Since high strength concrete is often used in harsh environments though
chloride ingress may not be a problem. But, chlorides within concrete should initially be
controlled. Because it becomes more difficult to get for, there is no way that anything
trapped inside can move out and if there part of an admixture and so on. Then whatever,
we use will remain trapped inside. So, that is something which we have to bother about.

Cracking should be controlled to ensure water tightness and durability against raising
and thawing which is related to air content. And special attention should be paid to fire
resistance as some of the reports just explosive failures at high temperatures.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:49)

And lastly, coming to some simple things related to design using high strength concretes,
we must remember that empirical equations for estimates of properties such as, the

510
modulus of elasticity, the tensile bond or shear strength are not valid and efforts need to
be made to get these through experiments.

Very often a specification will tell us that, E can be taken to be 5000 root of f c k or the
modulus of rupture can be taken to be something related to f c k or the root of f c k.
These equations are valid only for the range in which they have been tested. And since,
the data for high strength concretes is not all that voluminous, it is not provident to use
these kinds of correlations which exist for normal concretes for high strength concretes
as well and that is something which the designers have to keep in mind. Also, the lack of
ductility of the concrete needs to be factored in. Before we close, as usual we will have
some questions which we should try to answer to improve our understanding of the
issues that we have talked today.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:23)

Study the applications of fracture mechanics principles to concrete engineering

especially, in the case of high strength concrete. You will find that a lot of researchers
have tried to apply fracture mechanics principle to paste and mortar. And in some cases
high strength concretes, what are the kinds of parameters that they use, how they
evaluate them in fracture mechanics and so on.

List and study proportions of high strength concrete used in different projects around the
world. High strength concrete has been used in a large amount of projects across the
world where, the quality control has been carried out at different ages, using different

511
sizes and shapes of specimens. So, if we make a list of that, we will observe that there is
a difference in the parameter such as, the maximum size of the coarse aggregate used, the
details of the paste composition in terms of the supplementary cementitious materials or
mineral admixtures used, the super plasticizers used and so on. The testing and quality
control procedures. And I would like you to list and study special provisions for the
design of concrete structures using high strength concrete. And with this, we come to the
end of the discussion today.

Thank you.

512
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 16
Mass concrete (Part 1 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

And welcome back to a session on concrete engineering and technology, where we are
talking about basic principles and concrete science and engineering, and developing a
frame work, where the different topics which are of importance in modern day
construction. As far as concrete construction is concerned can be taken care of and
studied. Some of the issues that we are trying to deal with are in terms of special and
high performance concretes, their quality control and testing especially, related to
performance base thinking durability and maintenance.

513
(Refer Slide Time: 00:53)

And we are trying to study the fundamentals, proportioning of concrete mixes, the stages
in concrete constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement
and maintenance.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:05)

Now we will continue our discussion on special concretes today.

514
(Refer Slide Time: 01:10)

And like we have said, what is the special concrete? It could be in terms of the material
that we use other than the normal sand, ordinary Portland cement, water. And course
aggregate, it could be in terms of the properties that we except from the concrete in terms
of strength, workability and so on. It could be in the terms of the method of casting,
placing, or curing short creating is an example of that. It could be in terms of the
environment in which the concrete discussed for example, under water and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:51)

515
As far as materials are concerned, it could be the use of fibers, high volumes of flash and
things like that. As far as properties are concerned: like a mention it could be strength,
workability, durability and so on accept the durability of very very difficult property to
quantify. As far as methods is concerned: it could be shotcrete, it could be roller
compacted concrete. As far as the environment is concerned, it could be under water as I
mention it could be hot or cold weather and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:23)

These are some of the examples of special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:28)

516
And today, we will focus or intension on mass concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:34)

Now, how do we define mass concrete? There is no watertight definition, there is no

definition that can be given that ok this is what mass concrete is, accept that the
connotation is that it is a large volume of concrete. If you want to define it technically,
the ACI and other documents will help us and we can call mass concrete as that which
requires is special attention to take care of thermal stresses that may arise in concrete due
to the liberation of the heat of hydration of cement and the ensuing volume changes.

So, we are looking at a concrete where, the exothermic reaction of hydration of the
ordinary Portland cement which is in integral part of concrete causes temperature rise to
such an extent that special measures in need to be taken to take care of that temperature
rise because that temperature rise is a complete by formation of stresses within the
concrete may be it could result in tracking and also volume changes. So, if there is a
special need to specifically take care of the thermal stresses the temperature rise and so
on then, that can be called mass concrete.

Now, it is interesting to see that now we are taking up mass concrete as a special
concrete where we are trying to invoke temperature rise, development of thermal stresses
and so on, as a very very special property of concrete which normally does not require
attention but acquires some significance in certain contexts. So, that is what is going to
be the subject of discussion today.

517
(Refer Slide Time: 04:46)

Such concretes could involve pores of large volumes of concrete with relatively small
service area and gravity dams, can be sited as an in example of such construction. So,
dams are an example where there is a very large volume of concrete cast. In a report,
dams are not cast in a single pore, where cast in thousands of pores. So, but each pore is
itself a large volume of concrete and cast in a manner that the surface area is very small
relatively speaking. And we will see these discussions coming up again and again as we
go along in a discussion today. Another situation where mass concrete considerations
will apply would be in cases where the volume of concrete pore could be relatively
smaller; it could be a medium pore in terms of volume.

But, the concrete used could be high strength concrete. And this high strength concrete
has a large amount of cement and if it has a large amount of cement the total amount of
heat that is liberated during its hydration is large. And therefore, again the issue of
temperature rise, thermal stresses, volume changes all this has to be taken into an
account. As far as the construction process concerned: these constructions could involve
piers or anchorages where sometimes we try to use high strength concrete in modern day
construction.

518
(Refer Slide Time: 06:34)

Now, we will talk of thermal stress. Now, what is the thermal stress? It is the stress
generated in concrete on account of shrinkage and volume changes related to the release
of the hydration of cement that is very much related to internal and external restrains, as
we shall see in our discussion as part of this module of concrete discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:04)

Now, little bit of historical background. Before well, well before 1900 the construction
of large structures like dams was not very organized and we do not have two much
recorded information about it. But, between 1900 and 1930 that is about 100 years ago,

519
8200 year ago construction of dams such as the Arrow Rock dam in 1915, the Dalton
dam in 1920, the Theodone Roosevelt dam in 1911 was greatly accelerated and lot of
information came about 2 concrete engineers or civil engineers. And around 1930, the
Hoover dam was in the early stages of planning. And because of the exceptional size of
the Hoover dam, investigations what a lot more an elaborate than any other constructions
under taken previously using ordinary Portland cement. Of course, after the 1970s when
the behavior of concrete was much better understood, the construction equipment’s at a
evolved, roller compacted and so on came into vogue, came into use and it became one
of the promising alternatives as for as placing mass concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:25)

Now before the discussion on mass concrete becomes technical or very technical, let us
revisit some of the relevant fundamentals once again.

520
(Refer Slide Time: 08:35)

What is the composition of ordinary Portland cement? We know that it consist of

Tricalcium silicate, Dicalcium silicate, Tricalcium aluminate, Tetracalcium
aluminoferrite and gypsum. And the percentages that are given here are representative; a
cement could contain 45 to 75 percent of C 3 S, 72 to 32 percent of C 2 S, about 5 to10
percent of C 3 A and up to 18 percent of C 4 F in addition to gypsum.

Now, we also know that once water is added to the cement all these phases undergo
hydration and these phases liberate different amounts of heat as far as the heat measured
in let us say kilo calories per gram of these phases concerned. And therefore, for given
cement we can work out the total heat liberated in terms of kilo calories or joules per
gram or per kilo gram depending on the chemical composition of that cement. We must
remember that this heat is liberated over a long period of time. Hydration does not stop
in 3 days of 7 days or even 28 days for that matter, it continues for a much longer time.

And how long that hydration continues also depends upon the individual phases. These
phases react and hydrate at different rates. As far as concrete is concerned, the hydration
may continue for a very long time if, supplementary cement issues material like fly ash a
blast for a slag is used. And then this directly impacts the rate of heat liberated and this is
something very important as far as our discussion today is concerned.

521
(Refer Slide Time: 10:48)

As far as C 3 A is concerned: the Tricalcium aluminate, it is the largest single compound

contributed to the evolved heat followed by C 3 S and C 4 F which are about equal and
finally C 2 S. C 3 S hydrates and hardens rapidly and is largely responsible for the initial
set and the early strength and also therefore the early heat. C 3 A also contributes to early
heat. C 2 S hydrates and hardens slowly and is largely responsible for the strength
increases beyond let say a week or 10 days. And that is also true as far as the heat
liberated on account of C 2 S hydration is concerned. So, in fact depending on what
construction we are doing, we may like to control the chemical composition of the
cement that we use. If we are using a concrete where we need a lot of strength, we would
like to increase the C 2 S and the C 3 S but, given the fact that C 3 S is not friendly as far
as heat liberated is concerned.

We may like to increase the C 2 S content. What we must understand that it the
hydration is C 2 S will be slow and therefore this strength development could be slightly
slower and if we are willing to that that is alright.

522
(Refer Slide Time: 12:31)

This diagram here shows are rough picture of the rate of heat evolution and also
highlights some of the phenomenon that is occurring at that point in time. For example,
initial there is a C 3 S and the C 3 A hydration which is in a few minutes. Then there is
an initial set and finally C 3 S hydration continues, C 3 A enters into a secondary
hydration phases and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:01)

Now, coming back to the fundamentals and bulleting them, noting them points.
Hydration of cement is a highly exothermic reaction. So, there is a lot of heat liberated

523
when ordinary Portland cement hydrates. The heat liberated causes the temperature of
the concrete to rise, unless that heat is somehow removed specific cast of block of
concrete which has cement that heat that is liberated over period of time will cause the
temperature of that concrete to rise. Unless the situation is such that the heat that is
liberated is also removed from the concrete and dissipated into the atmosphere. We must
also remember that concrete is cast against form work, very often we have lifts of
concrete which means that a concrete is placed on top phenomena the concrete. So, the
bottom of the concrete is not in contact with the form work but with the previous placed
concrete or sometimes PCC’s that is the plain concrete or ground or any other material.

As far as form work is concerned, it could be plywood, steel or any other material that
we may choose to use. And then there is exports surface, most of the time concrete has
an expose surface. And now, this surface of concrete plays very important role in
decapitating the heat and that is what will be another subject of discussion today.
Strength development in concrete is gradual processes and is intrinsically link to the
hydration of cement. Thus, the properties of concrete at early ages change very rapidly.

We have drawn this picture repeatedly that the strength of concrete changes likes this, if
this is time and this strength. What we are talking of as far as mass concrete
consideration is concerned is in the early stages and at this point in time or in this period
of time the properties of concrete are changing very rapidly. And therefore, if something
is of interest to us at this point in time we must remember that the properties of concrete
at that point in time are here and not here, which is the property that is the concrete will
acquire in a fully mature or a fully hydrated state.

524
(Refer Slide Time: 16:03)

Continuing on discussion, depending upon the geometry of the member or the portion of
concrete being cast, the temperature of the core of a large block of concrete will be
higher than the portion closed to the surface. If we cast the concrete block like this, I am
showing it as a two dimensional picture, depending on the size of this block, the
temperature of this block, that is the core of the concrete will be very different from the
temperature of the surface anywhere. And we discussed earlier that this surface could be
in contact with form work here or it could be in contact with the ground or it could be
exposed to air.

So, these 4 surfaces here that is, if we call them as 1, 2, 3 and 4. 2 and 4 we have reason
to believe that will be similar. But, 1, 2 and 3 there is no reason to believe that
temperature of these surfaces will be same and there is no reason to believe that these
temperatures at the surface will be the same as the temperature in the heart of the
concrete. All this discussion assumes that the concrete block has a certain size. If the size
is very small then of course, the heat is being taken away as the concrete has been cast or
as it is as the concrete as a hardening and temperature differences may not be substantial.

Now the difference in the temperatures in the core and the portion close to the surface
sets up ‘thermal gradients’, which are the root of mass concrete related issues. So, if this
thermal gradients can be avoided a lot of heart problems as for response concrete is
concerned can be soft.

525
(Refer Slide Time: 18:11)

Now let us understand this little better through another example. Let us consider this
block and compared this with this very thin slab. You may say that the volumes of these
two worth same and there we realize that the block has a lower area to volume ratio then
the slab. That is, for a given volume the surface area of the block is much smaller
compare to that of the slab or the surface area of the slab is larger than that of the block
that is shown here for a given volume of concrete. Now, if the same amount of heat is
liberated in the two cases it is easier removed from the large surface of the slab than from
the block. The heat is dissipated into that atmosphere or the earth through the surface
which is in contact with it. The top surface is in contact with the atmosphere the bottom
surface is in contact with the earth or the previous lift of concrete and so on.

And the size and contact with the form work. So, the heat is dissipated through these
surfaces. And in the case of slabs, that is much easier because the surface area is larger.
Further, given the geometry, the thermal, or temperature gradients in the block will be lot
atmosphere than in the slab because in the slab the heat is been removed relatively
quickly because this dimension is small. So, the temperatures in the middle here and the
temperature is at the surface may not be very much different. This is not the case in the
case of a concrete block, where this distance is substantial and therefore, there is reason
to believe that the core will become hotter than the surface.

526
(Refer Slide Time: 20:22)

Now let us take an illustrated example and consider a 2 meter by 2 meter by 2 meter
concrete cast against the ground. Volume of this concrete is 8 cubic meters and the
surface area that is 6 phases of 2 by 2 which is 24 square meters is distributed as given in
a, b and c. There is a 2 meter by 2 meter surface which is in contact with the ground
which becomes the bottom. There are 4 phases of 2 meters by 2 meters which are in
contact with the form work and then the atmosphere after the form work will be
removed. And then, there is a 2 meter by 2 meter surface which is exposed to the
atmosphere on the top. And this b and c finally becomes exposed to that atmosphere, a is
not expose to that atmosphere.

527
(Refer Slide Time: 21:20)

Now, remember these figures and let us consider the second case, where we are talking
about a 200 mm thick concrete slab measuring 6.3 by 6.3 meters cast against the ground.
Now, the 6.3 has been chosen for a specific purpose in order to make the volume of the
concrete the same that is, 8 cubic meters. So, 6.3 into 6.3 into 0.2 would still give you
approximately 8 cubic meters of the concrete.

Now, this 8 cubic meters of the concrete now has a total area of 84.4 is square meters as
against the 24 square meters that we had at the previous case. As far as the distribution of
this 84 square meters is concerned, there is a 6.3 by 6.3 meters in contact with the ground
which becomes the bottom and there are 4 phases of 0.2 into 6.3 which are in contact
with the form work and then the atmosphere and there is a 6.3 by 6.3 expose to the
atmosphere on the top.

So, through this top and this bottom the heat that is liberated in the slab or the concrete
which is been used to cast the slab is dissipated into the atmosphere or taken into the
ground for ultimate dissipation. As we can see that, if there is only a 200mm difference
here then, the possibility or the extent of the thermal gradient that will develop between
the core temperature here and the tops or the bottom is quite small. We can virtually
assume that the temperature throughout the slab remains constant and this is an
assumption which we cannot make in the case of a block.

528
Let us take a look at the block once again and this is an assumption which we cannot
make for the 2 meter by 2 meter by 2 meter concrete block where the top and the bottom
they are separated by 2 meters and the core here is 1 meter away from the nearest
surface. As far as of course the slab is concerned this being a much smaller distance, that
is a top and the bottom being closer the distance between the sides does not really matter
because as far as heat is concerned we can assume it to be quickly dissipating in the
direction which is closest to the surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:56)

Now let us take a look at a concrete block which is cast against a glass plate and there is
a certain original length of the concrete block. Once the concrete has been cast on
account of the rise in temperature of the block due to the cement hydration there is an
expansion so, this original length which was here has now changed to these values on
account of the expansion in the block. We have assumed that glass does not wide any
friction or restrict that is this surface here as far as the concrete is concerned expands to
the same extent as the surface on the top that is the free surface.

529
(Refer Slide Time: 24:49)

Once the concrete is cooling, that is the pick temperature has been reached and the
concrete begins to cool, after all hydration does stop it does the heat liberation does not
continue all the time. So, after certain point of time the block will start to cool and once
starts cooling the concrete tends to wants to come back to its original position but, this
contraction is resistant, as the concrete has now acquired a lot most stiffness than it had
in the initial stages and this is the kind of discussion which requires as to very clear
understand that the concrete properties every hour, every day are changing.

And therefore, the properties of concrete that for allowing to expand when the heating
was going on have changed to an extent that they would resist the change in the opposite
direction. So, as a result of which the concrete takes an intermediate position that is the
length of the concrete from this point and time from this maximum level has come to this
point here and not this point here. So, the concrete which was at a went to b and has
come back to c and the same thing is on the side here.

530
(Refer Slide Time: 26:22)

So, once we understand this part. What that means is that there is a final length and there
is an original length and the concrete is under a virtual tensile strain. So, the concrete
feels as if this amount of extension in the concrete is a tensile strain and this can be
looked upon as a this can be looked upon as being cost by a virtual tensile strain. So, it is
as if there is a tensile stress which has caused or which has brought about the expansion
or an increase in the length of concrete to the extent of if we use the previous
nomenclature it is a and c. That is the original position and the final position. The b
which was the position after expansion is somewhere here. Now, this thermal tensile
stress is related to the modulus of elasticity of the concrete which again is the property at
that point in time.

531
(Refer Slide Time: 27:30)

Continuing over discussion, if this tensile stress that the concrete is under exceeds the
tensile strain of the concrete, at that point in time concrete will crack. That is, will have
cracks form like this and these are the cracks which have been induced by the tensile
thermal stresses on account of the heat that was generated when the cement was
hydrating and the heat dissipation was not proper and the concrete could not come back
to its original position and therefore, cracks.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:21)

532
Now let us consider the concrete being cast in an actual condition and not a glass plate.
So, this here represents let us say ground or a previously cast concrete and these are the
concrete blocks that we are casting. So, if this is the initial condition of the cast concrete,
in this case there is little external restrained and in this case there is total external
restrained. Let us see what happens when the temperature increases that is during the
rising part of the temperature this is what will happen to the concrete.

The concrete will expand at the bottom as well as at the top accept that the expansion at
the top will be slightly more than that of concrete at the bottom because after all even
though there is little external restrained if not set that it is 0. The second thing we should
notice is that, there is the core of concrete which has been shaded in a slightly different
color and this temperature is not really the same as a temperature at the top and the
bottom. Compare to these set of pictures, let us see what is happening at the other side
when we have total external restrained.

Now, as there is total external strained the ground here does not allow the concrete that
has been cast to expand and therefore, there is no change in the dimension of the
concrete at the bottom and because there is no change at the bottom this effect is carried
over even to the top and the extent of deformation at the top is also restricted.

Now, let us look at what happens when the temperature falls. The temperature falls
because there is little restrained. As far as the picture on the left is concerned the
concrete comes back to its original position. Whereas, in this case it remains where it is
and the concrete at the free surface has contracted.

So, this is something which we must understand and keep at the back of our mind that
concrete expands and contracts they extent of expansion or contraction is governed by
the principles of heat that is in terms of the coefficient of thermal expansion and so on.
The amount of heat liberated, coefficient of thermal expansion, the stresses, the strains
and all that and also related to the degree of restrained that the environment offers to it
and in this case then environment is primarily they external environment which is the
ground or the base against which the concrete is cast. So, it is not a friction less surface.
So, these things if we keep at the back of for mind we are prepared for a more analytical
or a more quantitative discussion of considerations is in mass concrete.

533
(Refer Slide Time: 31:44)

To revise our situation, to finally revise the principles once again there is a initial
condition where there is in original length l, followed by temperature rise if there is free
deformation the degree of restrained being 0, the concrete expands as shown up to this
point here and which means that there is a free strained as shown. Compare to this, if the
degree of restrained is one that is there is full restrained the concrete remains where it
was and there is a restrained distained equal to them amount of free strained. When there
is partial restrained there is the degree of restrained this point 0.3 and that 0.3 means that
the restrained strength is 0.3 times or 30 percent of this strength and this is the free strain
that we get.

534
(Refer Slide Time: 32:48)

Now, this is an illustrative example of actual data obtained from laboratory studies in a
block. We will talk about the actual conditions and so on later on but, I thought I will
share this with you today to give you an idea as to what is the kind of temperature that
we are looking at. Let us not bother about the end of conditions and so on and so forth.
So, five sis to say that if we begin with an initial temperature of about 30 degrees the
peak temperatures could be of the order of 60 to 70 degrees. That is, the extent of
increase in temperature is of the order of about 30 to 40 degree centigrade and this
happens within a certain period of time.

So, if you look at the peak temperature and when it is reached we will get this number
here. Having said that finally, the concrete block does go to an equilibrium temperature
at the end of a certain amount of time once again and this process is a lot more gradual.
So, this is the kind of actual numbers that we are talking about keep that in mind when
we study principles of mass concrete, we try to do the analysis, we try to do design in
this particular module of course will probably not do very quantitative treatment. But, we
must remember these numbers and keep the met the back of our mind.

So that we are able to at least appreciate the principles of design, the principles involve
be construction where mass concrete considerations are important.

535
(Refer Slide Time: 34:36)

Now, simplistically speaking, the problem of thermal stresses in concrete can be studied
by integrating the following: heat generation, which is liberation of heat, movement of
heat through the concrete through thermal gradients and dissipation of heat to the
atmosphere. So, if you are able to integrate these 3 ideas that we understand from
physics, we can understand how to handle situations in mass concrete or how to handle
thermal stresses in mass concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:16)

536
Now, as far as heat generated is concerned, it is related to the volume of concrete and the
proportions and properties of the materials used. So, if there is a certain volume of
concrete amount of heat generated there would depend on what is the property of the
material that we have used, cement aggregate and so on and what is the proportional,
how much of these individual materials went into a cubic meter of that concrete. Of
special importance to us would be the properties of cement that is the finest and the
composition. The finest and composition will both being important for us to understand
the rate, at which the heat is liberated, the rate at which different phases hydrated. And
finally of course, the Unit Cement content. These are the principle factors that help us
understand the heat generated part.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:23)

Now, if we come to the heat movement through the concrete, we have the properties of
concrete such as conductive and specific heat which help us understand or model. How
much heat will be transferred from one place in concrete to another? And another factor
is the temperature difference between neighboring concrete elements, if you are using
any kind of a finite element or such software. We must understand, what is the difference
between the temperatures at neighboring points? And once we understand the difference
then we can calculate or model the amount of heat that will be transfer. As an extreme
example it is the core part of the concrete and the surface. So, if we just consider
concrete to be met of core and the surface we know we will try to understand how much
the temperature difference between the core and the surface.

537
(Refer Slide Time: 37:26)

Now as far as heat removal and dissipation is concerned, it occurs from the surfaces and
we must remember that as far as heat dissipation through the surface is concerned, curing
is a very important factor. If we put water on the surface it changes the characteristics as
far as the heat dissipation is concerned. So, curing is important as its implications not
only in terms of a strength development and hydration of cement but, also in terms of
controlling or affecting the thermal gradients, the temperature and so on at the surface.
And these this amount of dissipation will be different in the case of bottom of the
concrete where its cast against the earth or a previous concrete. Similarly, the dissipation
will be different from was which are initially in contact with the form work and then
with the atmosphere once the form work has been removed and the top surface which is
exposed to the atmosphere.

538
(Refer Slide Time: 38:47)

So, in these two cases curing is very critical from the point of view of understanding or
modeling the dissipation of heat through the concrete surfaces. It is important that we
understand the surface area and surface temperature of concrete through which the heat
is transferred the atmosphere. That also will be an important player in the understanding
or in modeling the heat dissipation, the temperature the difference in the temperature
between the concrete and the atmosphere and also the conditions in the atmosphere. For
example, if the wind rain temperature all these things would affect the extent of heat
transfer the takes place from the concrete surface into the atmosphere.

So, once we are doing numerical model, where we are trying to understand that we cast
this concrete block and now we want to understand how soon or how much later the heat
here will be dissipated through the surface here. We must understand some number 1:
how much heat is generated here, number 2: how easier difficult is it to pass through the
concrete and then what is the properties or what are the properties at the surface what is
happening in the ambient region wind rain temperature and so on and so forth.

539
(Refer Slide Time: 40:08)

Now when it comes to working with mass concrete how do we handle it?

(Refer Slide Time: 40:14)

What are the things that are important?

540
(Refer Slide Time: 40:17)

We try to control the materials and proportioning of concrete, we try to reduce the
cement content to as little as 100 to 200 and 20 kg’s per cubic meter. This can be
achieved through the use of chemical admixtures, air in trainers or simply this is some
stack it should be simply increasing the water-cement ratio. So, we use high water-
cement ratios may be even has a highest, may be even as highest 70580 percent because
the strength we are looking for in this cases is pretty small, it could be just 12 to 15 M Pa
for example, in gravity dams.

So, we used chemical admixtures to reduce the water demand, we use air and trainers
and that also helps us get the water demand down, we try to replace the part of cement by
artificial materials such as fly ash, we try to use low heat of hydration cement and this
idea of a low heat of hydration cement could be different in the case when concrete is
used in dams and in the case when the concrete has high strength. In the case of dams,
we are looking at minimizing the amount of heat that will be generated initially and we
are not particularly bothered about whether or not a large amount of a strength
development happens later on.

In the case of high strength concrete, we are concerned with this strength at the later
stages but, also we are concerned with the heat. So, therefore, I would like you to recall
the discussion that we had early in this discussion today when we said that C 2 S and C 3
S, C 3 A, they all react and hydrate, liberate heat at different rates and depending on

541
what we want, whether we want high strength we are willing to leave with is strength
development taking place later as far as concrete is concerned, we do not want to
compromise on the amount of heat liberated C 2 S and c three s have to be balance in a
proper manner. C 3 A needs to be taken out or minimized if we need to that and so on.
We can use chilled water or ice flakes with mixing water to reduce the temperature of
mixing water.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:10)

Basically, every possible trick that helps us lower the peak temperature should be
explored. We have seen that the peak temperature could be as higher 65-70 centigrade
we need to somehow keep it as low as possible. And therefore, we should use every trick
there. We use the maximum possible size of aggregate and this reduces the water
demand and thereby the unit water content and therefore, the unit cements content for
given water content use the largest possible size of aggregate. We should try to arrive at
the most desirable or an optimum combination of aggregate sizes.

So that, the water demand is reduced in construction of structures like dam’s there is so
much concrete being used that even a small amount of adjustment can make a large
amount of difference as far as the total amount of cement is concerned or the heat
generated is concerned.

542
(Refer Slide Time: 44:18)

When it comes to transferring the discussion from the temperature to stresses then, the
properties of aggregate also become very important. So, we need to study the aggregate
mineralogy and this mineralogy and the aggregate content effect the properties such as,
the elastic models concrete which is in important factor in determining the actual tensile
stresses in the material. We need to study the properties such has heat diffusivity and the
coefficient of thermal expansion which are also greatly affected by the aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:59)

543
Basically, we should use concrete with the stiffest possible constituency. In fact given
the volumes of concrete involved, alternative methods of placing and compaction should
be considered rather than increasing the water content and the assuming cement content
to facilitate construction. And this alternative method of placing and compaction this
discussion has taken us to the roller compact concrete construction. Instead of
constructing dams and such structures with blocks of concrete, the thought process
transformed to create large layers of concrete which were compacted using vibrated the
rollers and once the concrete of block gets transformed into the concrete in layers then,
as we have seen in several of are examples today, the problem of thermal stresses can be
minimized if not the avoided.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:04)

As far as lowering the peak temperature is concerned, we need to or we could try the
option of ‘pre-cooling’ the materials to a lower placing temperature. So, this placing
temperature is the temperature of fresh concrete and is related to the proportions and the
temperature of the individual materials. So, if you pre cool the materials we will get a
lower placing temperature or the temperature of fresh concrete. We could also try post
cooling as against pre-cooling and post cooling involves a run cold water in network of
pipes buried in concrete to remove the heat generated and reduce the temperature rise.

544
(Refer Slide Time: 46:47)

Both these options have been used. Post cooling was first used in the Hoover dam in US
in the early 30s. So, you can imagine there are those times without compute, without
even calculators perhaps of any form; engineers did used techniques which were highly
innovative. Pre-cooling was used for the first time in the 1940. So, what we are doing
now is giving a quantitative meaning to qualitative suggestions or steps which are of
which have been taken which are logical and which have a already been taken in (( ))
modern day construction so that our constructions become more effective, they become
more accurate, our calculations are more reproducible, they are closer to the actual
behavior in the field and so on.

545
(Refer Slide Time: 47:50)

As far as pre-cooling is concerned: it involves use of pre-cooled material with the

intension of lowering the initial of placement temperature of concrete and has the
advantage of reducing the water demand a little bit which is also related to the
temperature of placing being lower at lower temperatures, we could use crushed ice and
or chilled water as far as mixing is concerned, we could cooled aggregates using liquid
nitrogen, spring it we chilled water and so on. But for that we need to set up special
facilities to pre-cool these materials and lower the temperature to say 5 degrees and 7
degrees and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:30)

546
This here is a representative diagram which tells us how the temperature rise changes, if
the placing temperatures are different. So, if the placing temperatures of concrete are
lower, the temperature rises lower and so long as temperature rises kept in control, the
problems relating to mass concrete can be kept in control. With that understanding or
with that thought processes we try to takes steps in order to reduce the placing
temperatures.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:06)

What is more effective water being a higher specific heat those rocks or aggregates. It is
more efficient to use child water than chilling the aggregates and carrying this thought
forward we could use ice instead of water for mixing.

547
(Refer Slide Time: 49:21)

As far as post cooling: it is concerned it is achieved through circulation of cold water in

pipes which are about 25 mm in diameter, 1.5 mm in wall thickness which are embedded
in concrete. This helps us is stabilized the volumes of concretes.

So that other operation such as grouting at joint etcetera can be carried out and
monolithic construction can be ensured. It helps the concrete to come to equilibrium
much faster due to low conductivity it may takes several years to achieve otherwise. So,
what we saw earlier the cooling in the natural course is a very very long drawn process
and therefore, post cooling helps us quickly get read of the heat and get the concrete into
equilibrium. What should be the time when the water circulation is start at and at what
rate should be done?

548
(Refer Slide Time: 50:21)

Now this is a picture of embedded water pipes and at distances which is S 1 and S 2
which is shown. You should remember that once we run the cooling water there is a
region around the pipe which will be cooled by that particular pipe. So, depending on the
modeling at the analysis that we do we need to arrive at these spacing S 1 and S 2 and
also the flow rate of water.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:53)

The rate of heat removal is obviously related to the flow rate of water in pipes and needs
to the carefully designed for the entire purpose or for the entire period of concrete

549
construction. Initially, when the model of concrete is low the heat removal can be as
quick as possible we need to have a flow rate which is able to do that. Later on when
they strength and the model of elasticity increases and the peak temperature is reached, at
that time the flow rates needs to be adjusted.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:27)

Continuing with our discussion as for as working is concerned we come to some design
and quality control is specifications. There can be a cap or a maximum limit on the
acceptable temperature for individual materials, there can be cap on the maximum
placing temperature of concrete.

550
(Refer Slide Time: 51:48)

As we have seen in the illustrate example we can cap this temperature here which is the
placing temperature, we can cap this temperature rise, we can cap the peak temperature.
So, these are some of the specifications which a designer can give as far as prevention of
cracking or handling thermal stresses in concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 52:19)

Now, we will continue with the discussion in the next class and let me give you some
material which you can refer to, for reading. This is a list of such material and I would
like to thank.

551
(Refer Slide Time: 52:28)

So and so for the discussion before we close, there are some questions which you can
take as home assignment, try to obtain specific information about the heat of hydration of
different cements. Study the mix proportion as used for major concrete dams in the
world, study a case study on pre-cooling and pipe cooling application in concrete
construction, study different specifications relating to concrete construction using mass
concrete.

Thank you.

552
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 17
Mass concrete (Part 2 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

And hello, welcome back to this series of lecture on concrete engineering and
technology, where we are trying to study the fundamentals of concrete once again in the
light of developments that have taken place in the last 15-20 years. We are trying to
understand better the concepts in proportioning of concrete mixes, stages in concrete
construction, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration in concrete, reinforcement
and concrete structures and their maintenance. So, in the last couple of discussion, we are
focused on special concretes and within that mass concrete was the focus of discussion in
last class.

553
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

Now, before we proceed in our discussion on the subject today. Let us recapitulate some
of the things that we did last time.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:10)

Last time the focus was on revision of fundamentals from the point of view of mass
concrete. We try to understand some basic processes in modeling mass concrete and also
some options which were available with us in terms of working with mass concrete.

554
(Refer Slide Time: 01:31)

So, going over these once again quickly, as far as the fundamentals are concerned we
saw that they were no basic definition or no watertight definition that this is what is mass
concrete. It is any concrete that requires a special attention to take care of thermal
stresses that may arise in concrete due to the liberation of heat of hydration of cement
and the ensuing volume changes.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:55)

And therefore, the situation of mass concrete could arise, in say in cases where there are
large pours of concrete with relatively small surface area and gravity dams can be cited

555
as an example of such construction. It could arise in situation where the pours are
medium size but, the concrete is high strength which entails that the cement content will
be high and therefore, amount of heat liberated is going to be large.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:28)

As far as thermal stresses are concerned we said that these are the stresses generated in
concrete on account of shrinkage and volume changes related to the release of heat
hydration is cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:40)

556
We once again saw the composition of cement in terms of its solid complexes. And all
these sold complexes they have their own rates of hydration, their own heat of hydrations
that they liberate while they hydrate.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:58)

And we also know that C 3 A or the tricalcium aluminates, is the largest single
compound contributed to the evolve heat and followed by C 3 S and C 4 A F which are
more or less equal and then finally, C 2 S we have also seen that C 2 S hydrates and
hardens rapidly and is largely responsible for the initial set and early strength and
concrete and C 3 S hydrates and hardens slowly and is largely responsible for the
strength beyond 1 week.

So, depending on what kind of concrete we are talking about, we need to control the
chemical composition of cement. If it high strength concrete: we need one type of
cement. If we want really low heat of hydration cements from an early strength point of
view or from a mass concrete application with large volumes where strength is not really
a consideration then, we need a different chemical composition. So, the whole definition
of low heat of hydration cement comes into question and we have to appropriately
defined it depending on the kind of use that we want the cement or the kind of function,
that we want a concrete to discharge.

557
(Refer Slide Time: 04:14)

This is the summery of what fundamentals that we studied last time. Hydration of cement
is a highly exothermic reaction; the heat liberated causes the temperature of the concrete
to rise unless we are able to remove the heat from the body of concrete very quickly. We
should remember that concrete is cast against formwork and very often we have lifts of
concrete where a fresh batch is placed against another one which could be previously
placed level of concrete or against rock or ground or whatever it is.

Strength development in concrete is a gradual process and is intrinsically linked to the

hydration of cement and thus the properties of concrete at early ages change rapidly. And
therefore, if we are talking about considering or studying effect of a certain property of
concrete then, we should really take into account a time dependence of that property
especially in the early stages and that is where mass concrete considerations are very
important.

558
(Refer Slide Time: 05:20)

Depending upon the geometry of the member or the portion of concrete being cast, the
temperature of the core of a large concrete block will be higher than the portion closer to
the surface. And the difference in temperatures of the core and techniques portion close
to the surface sets up thermal gradients which are the root cause of thermal stresses.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:42)

We have gone over this example where we had looked at a block of concrete measuring
2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters and the thin slab of 200 thick and measuring about 6.3
or 6.4 meters square. And try to understand how the same amount of heat liberated can

559
be taken care of or dissipated from the surface areas of these 2 cases and the surface area
we saw in the case of slabs is much larger than that of the cube.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:49)

We had also discussed that these concretes are cast against a certain previously placed
concrete at the bottom and then that is the formwork which is there at the around and this
block and this surface is exposed atmosphere.

So, depending upon the exposure conditions, how the dissipation changes or the
characteristics of this patience change depending on the characteristics of the surface or
the boundary conditions on the surface here. We also studied a schematic diagram like
this where we had discussed that if a concrete is cast within original length of l which is
shown here and the temperature rises there is a free strain in case the degree of restrained
is 0 that is something like concrete being cast on a glass plate that is what we have talked
about. Against they had if the degree of restrained is 1 that is, it is completely restrained

Then this entire free strain becomes restrained strain and the concrete does not expand
beyond this point. Similarly, if there is a partial restraint then we can have a combination
of a certain amount of restrained strain and the certain amount of free strain. And
depending on the ratio of these 2 with respect to the total restrain we can define the
concept of degree of restrain and if we have 0.3 then, we have this to be 30 percent of the
total strain.

560
(Refer Slide Time: 07:55)

We had discussed this example which was the more realistic example of a concrete block
being cast against the surface of previous concrete or a rock bed and seen how the
situation changes with little external strain and a total external strain at the time of
temperature rise and also at the time of the temperature fall, that is the cooling of
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:23)

Having done all that we had discussed the 3 basic processes which are involved when we
model mass concrete, the heat generation or liberation which is related primarily to the

561
cement content and the characteristics of cement fineness chemical composition and so
on.

We had talked about the movement of heat through the concrete, through thermal
gradients and we had talked about the dissipation of heat to the atmosphere depending
upon the characteristics of the surface against which the concrete is cast, the kind of
formwork that is used and the kind of curing condition that are applied after the
formwork has been removed in built condition such as wind rain and so on, also
contribute to changing the characteristics as far as the heat dissipation is concerned. So,
this was our discussion as far as modeling of concrete is concerned from the point of
view of mask concrete or trying to understand the kind of temperatures that are built up
on account of heat of hydration of cements.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:36)

So, with this discussion we had gone on to discuss some of the option that we have when
we deal with mass concrete applications. And the bottom line was that every trick that
can be used to lower the peak temperature of concrete. Basically, we had seen a diagram
which said that from an initial temperature the concrete temperature rises and goes back
finally, to a stable value. So, whatever we can do to control this temperature rise or this
peak temperature we must try to do and that will help us a lot in controlling the thermal
stresses or the thermal strains in concrete. One of them could be reduce the cement

562
content; another could be replacing a part of cement with materials such as flyash which
does not liberates so much heat on account of hydration.

And the secondary hydration processes in the case of pozzolanic reactions of flyash and
so on. Use low heat of hydration cement, if we introduce the amount of heat that is
generated from the cement by changing the chemical composition of the cement that
helps, we should try to pay special attention to the properties of coarse aggregates the
size, the mineralogy and the gradation. Because all these properties contribute to the
properties of concrete and when it comes to modeling of thermal stresses then, properties
such as the thermal expansion of concrete or the module of elasticity they all depend
heavily on the properties of coarse aggregate. And we do not really bother about them in
normal construction but, as far as modeling for mass concrete application as concerned
they become very important.

We should use as stiff concrete as possible because if we use stiff concrete basically,
what we do is reduce the water content and if you reduce the water content by definition
by simple arithmetic we reduce the cement content and that contributes to the reduction
in the amount of fluid that is generated. We should actually consider alternative methods
of placing and compaction using roller compacted concrete or roller compaction is a
process by which we can reduce the layer thickness. So, instead of casting concrete
blocks of large thickness, we can consider the option of cast in concrete in layers and that
is what is the technology of roller compacted concrete construction. Given the volumes
involved all these measures help us greatly in reducing the thermal stresses.

563
(Refer Slide Time: 12:29)

We have talked about pre-cooling that is the use of materials such as crust ice cooling of
aggregates and so on in order to lower the placing temperature. Now, how much should
placing temperature be is a different discussion that engineers need to do. But, from this
graph here we can see that if we are able to reduce the placing temperature this way then
the amount of temperature rise that we get for a given volume to surface area ratio
becomes smaller and that is what our target should be.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:11)

564
Similarly, we had talked about post cooling: which involves running of cold water in a
networks of pipes buries in concrete to remove the heat generated on account of cement
hydration and therefore, reduce the temperature rise and we had talked about how these
pipes and the water running through these pipes helps us cool a certain amount of
concrete around those concrete around those buried pipes.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:43)

Having said all that, we were trying to discuss an illustrative example where we have this
as an placing temperature, this as the amount of temperature rise. I am not differentiating
between the temperature rise and temperature fall because, the temperature rise is the rise
from the placing temperature to the peak temperature, the temperature fall is the
difference of the peak temperature and the inbuilt temperature to which it falls. So, in
this case I have taken to be more or less the same. I have taken this line to be not really
very different and of course we have the peak temperature itself.

565
(Refer Slide Time: 14:25)

So, as far as design and quality control specifications are concerned, we can talk in terms
of a maximum acceptable temperature for individual materials and that is what we can
achieve or we will have to achieve though moves like pre-cooling. We could put a
number like 5 degree centigrade or 7 degree centigrade. Similarly, we can put a cap on
the maximum placing temperature which is a function of the proportions and the
temperature of the constituent materials. We can put a cap on the maximum placing
temperature at say 12 degree centigrade or 14 degree centigrade. Continuing this
discussion we can fix or put a maximum amount on the extent of temperature rise and
the drop as a design parameter. Specification can say that no more than 30 degree
centigrade or no more than 25 degree centigrade of a temperature rise of all should be
allowed whatever means need to be taken have to be adopted.

The peak temperature reached can be yet another design parameter and the value such as
50 degree centigrade could be an example. So, as a designer a concrete engineer has
various options which are available to him to specify and then it is up to us and it our
innovativeness to figure out ways and means of how those targets can be achieved.

566
(Refer Slide Time: 16:08)

Yet another parameter which is interesting is, a thermal cracking index, which is what I
am calling TCI. This is the ratio of the tensile strength and the maximum tensile stress of
concrete at a given point and time. So, we are talking of tensile strength which develops
over period of time and the tensile stresses which change over a period of time
depending on what the characteristics of the temperature rise and the other properties of
concrete are. So, at any instance of time if we take the ratio of the tensile strength and the
tensile stress, a maximum tensile stress in the block then, we can talk in terms of a
thermal cracking index and the higher it is the better it is. Because, what a higher TCI
would indicate that the tensile strength at that point and time is so much higher than the
maximum tensile stress.

So, if we have a tensile strength of 2 M P a and tensile stress of 1 M P a then, our TCI
will be 2 which means that we have sufficient strength to sustain or withstand the kind of
tensile stresses that are formed. Now, the tensile strength for the purpose of calculating
the TCI can be taken to be at the time of the peak thermal stress, it cannot be a constant.
And as I have said the TCI will be now time dependent because that both the tensile
strength as well as the tensile stress they keep changing with time because a temperature
change with time, the tensile strength changes with time and therefore, the TCI is time
dependent and what we need to do is to take the minimum TCI and see whether our
concrete meets that criteria that we have set for it or not. We have already studied or we
have already discussed that we would like to have as higher TCI is possible because that

567
will give us more caution as far as our ability or the ability of the concrete to withstand
our tensile stress, if the tensile stress and is higher than the tensile strength obviously, the
concrete is going to crack and that is something which we want to avoid. So, that
principle is what is manifested in a thermal cracking index, the ratio of tensile strength
and the tensile stress at a given point and time.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:04)

So, if you look at it graphically this is schematic diagram showing the probability of
cracking and the thermal cracking index. So, if we have a thermal cracking index of 1,
that is the tensile strength and concrete is the same as the maximum tensile stress. Then,
the concrete is as likely to crack as an unlikely to crack of course, we do not know much
about it and therefore, this is taken as 0.5. Whereas, if the thermal cracking index
becomes less than 1 its more or less certain that the concrete will crack.

If it increases and becomes greater than 1 then the probability of cracking goes down and
we are operating in this range. What we should remember is that, cracking at the end of it
is a very difficult phenomenon to predict. And therefore, even with a high cracking index
the possibility that we will miss out some portion of concrete which may have cracks
cannot be ruled out. And similarly, at low values of the TCI it is not really sure that
cracks will always be found and formed everywhere and therefore, there is a possibility
that the cracks will not found and that is why this diagram has been drawn the way it has

568
been drawn and the probability of cracking and the thermal cracking index of 1 has been
taken to be 0.5.

Now, depending upon the criticality of the structure and other factors we can choose an
appropriate TCI. So, the designer can specify a TCI that well for a particular construction
we want that the minimum thermal cracking index should be 1.5 or 1.7. And then, the
entire discussion becomes focused on whether we are able to get that thermal cracking
index considering the heat generation as well as heat dissipation.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:23)

It should be noted that the tensile strength of concrete varies with time and only develops
gradually and therefore, the value based on the parameters such as the characteristics
strength cannot be used. What we want to say here is that, whether it is a tensile strength
or it is a modulus of elasticity course often give us these values as a function of the
characteristics strength 5,000 times c k, 0.7 times f c k and so on and so forth. But, these
values are different than those that should be used for mass concrete applications because
these values which are given in terms of the characteristics strength are valid for mature
concrete, concrete which has sufficiently hydrated and gain strength.

What we are talking mass concrete applications is instantaneous values in the early
stages of concrete and therefore, we should use, we need to determine these values as we
go along in our discussion, as we go along with the concrete construction.

569
(Refer Slide Time: 22:39)

Summarizing, what I would like to say is that we need to look at a concreting operation
as mass concrete depending upon a combination of the geometry and the heat liberated.
If the pour is large volume that is the geometry there is a critical cement content beyond
which the operation requires a special treatment.

Similarly, if he cement content is high there is a critical geometry or the volume beyond
which special treatment is required. You can obviously, recognize this part as relevant
for dam construction where we have large volumes of concrete been poured, we are not
particularly bothered about the strength of the concrete 10 M Pa, 12 M Pa. I think these
are the numbers that we mention last time.

Similarly, as far as this part is concerned we are talking about high strength concrete and
in high strength concrete there is a geometry beyond which special treatment is required.
In the case of dams there is a critical cement content which will make it important, which
will necessity considerations of mass concrete to be applied. With this we come to an
end of 1 part of our discussion.

570
(Refer Slide Time: 24:08)

Now the second part of the discussion today, deals with the concept of thermal stresses
due to internal restraint and external restraint. Now, in the case of internal restraint we
have bothered about peak stresses been reached in a period between several days to
about a week. And the central part of a concrete pour reaching of maximum temperature
and the temperature difference between the core of the concrete and the surface. In the
case of external restrained, we are talking about peak stresses been reached in a period
which varies from several weeks and may be few months. In the case of external restraint
the discussion is effected by the rate of temperature fall rigidity of the restraining body
length of the member and so on.

571
(Refer Slide Time: 24:54)

As far as cracking thermal stresses in internal restraint is concerned, the thermal stresses
on account of internal restrain could lead to appearance of cracks and the concrete
surface which are either vertical or horizontal, which could be several centimeters to
several times of centimeter deep. But, they are only about point 1 mm as far as width is
concerned they are not very void cracks. Whereas, the cracking on account of external
restraint, these cracks are essentially penetrative in nature and their restraint could vary
with age they sometimes cross at right angle and run right through the depth of concrete
and measure more than point 2 mm width. In fact, you would recall a kind of cracks that
we showed in an example last class, in an example in the last discussion where we
showed formation of cracks and we showed, and we showed that those cracks run
through the body of concrete.

This closes our discussion on the basic theory of mass concrete or a theoretical
qualitative discussion on mass concrete from this point onwards what I am going to share
with you is the work of the gradual student who did his piyius with professor D C Rai in
our institute and worked on thermal stresses in mass concrete at early ages. So, in this
presentation or parts of this presentation we would see the actual numbers that were
obtained in a laboratory study which illustrate the kind of discussion that we have been
doing in terms of temperature rise, temperature fall, and the temperature at different parts
of the concrete and so on and so forth.

572
(Refer Slide Time: 26:54)

This picture shows the experimental setup which was used. This is a plain concrete block
that was cast, this here is a reinforced concrete block that was cast and this here is a
reinforced concrete block cast with a sleeve where, water was run to stimulate the
conditions of pipe cooling or post cooling, this here is a representation of the formwork
where we used a 20 mm thick ply or a 25 mm thick ply with a 100 mm thick insulations
with these blocks

(Refer Slide Time: 27:39)

573
The experiments were carried out using a concrete with different concretes. Blocks
which we talked about last time were cast using different concretes and this is an
illustrative example. The cement content is very large because we are trying to work with
relatively high strength concrete, and m 45 concretes which and N M 45 concrete which
could have a compressive strength about say 55, 56 M P a. So, with this high cement
content,

(Refer Slide Time: 28:12)

These are the kind of blocks that were cast. So, this shows the different blocks made with
or the form work for the blocks made of plywood and this shows the concrete that has
been cast and this here is the representation of the sleeve which was left out or not or the
sleeve which was later used for running of water pipes.

574
(Refer Slide Time: 28:39)

Now, this is the half filed block with thermocouples being used at different places to
monitor the temperature of concrete during the hydration of cement and the subsequent
cooling and here is the insulation.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:06)

This is the diagrammatic representation of the different thermocouples that were used for
measurement of temperature. Thermocouples were placed at the surface of each box.
Ambient temperature, exposed surface temperature is also measured with the help of

575
thermometer. There is a center and there is a faith, there are these phases and there is the
bottom there is the top.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:36)

So, thermocouples were used to monitor the temperature at different points in the
concrete and was validated using water to give us these kind of values which basically
showed at the thermocouples were working properly and within a range of let us say 0
degrees to 100 degrees, we have reasonably accurate way of understanding or measuring
the temperature.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:01)

576
Now, after the concrete had been cast and all these thermocouples were in place with
different blocks and the different kinds of concrete indeed, the data acquisition becomes
the problem. So, a data acquisition system was used as can be seen here different kinds
of software’s whatever they are used in the laboratory are used to acquire all the
temperature changes or all the measured values of temperature at different locations in
the concrete of the plain concrete block, the reinforced concrete block and the concrete
block with reinforcement and the sleeve that ran through it.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:43)

Now here are the results. So, if you look at the concrete specimen there are different
readings that we have, the peak temperature that we get in terms of hours is somewhere
here and the values range from say, 60 to 70 degree centigrade. With the ambient
temperature varying the weight is shown here similarly, for the reinforced concrete
specimen. Now it is interesting to see that as far as the reinforced concrete specimen is
concerned, the peak temperature is not very much different from the plain concrete and
that is the way it possibly should be because the presence of reinforcement per say does
not alter the amount of heat liberated, what the reinforcement does is, to restrict the
movement of concrete as far as expansion or construction is concerned but, as far as the
temperatures are concerned they may still be rising the way they should rise.

577
(Refer Slide Time: 31:54)

Coming to the temperature of the concrete specimen with sleeve these temperatures are
10 to 15 degrees lower than those observed in the case of plain concrete and the normally
reinforced concrete and that shows the importance of the heat being gotten rid of through
the sleeve.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:20)

If we look at a graphical representation of these temperatures, if we look at plain

concrete; the center; the phase and the top these are the values in reinforced concrete,
these are the values and the center or the sleeve or the specimen with sleeve these are the

578
values. So, it is interesting to see that even though in this case the center is higher than at
other locations and that is the kind of concept that we are talking of in terms of a core of
concrete. Here this center is at a lower value because we have a sleeve there and that is
helping us get rid of the temperatures or getting rid of the heat which results in lower
temperatures. And this is a graphical representation of the temperatures with these
temperatures be more or less similar and these temperatures being actually much lower
than what is observed in the other two cases.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:24)

These pictures compare the temperature histories obtain for the plain concrete, the
reinforced concrete and the reinforced concrete with the sleeve. So, here we have the
temperature at the top and here we have the temperature at the center for these 3
specimens.

579
(Refer Slide Time: 33:48)

Similarly, in this case we have the bottom phase. At the bottom phase again the results
are similar. And the side phases, at the side phases the difference is much smaller
because at the sides the effect of having a sleeve is reduced but, still there to cause some
difference in the peak temperatures.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:16)

Now, if you look at the temperature differences then we look at plain concrete, the
reinforced concrete and the reinforce concrete with sleeve. Then, we find that the
temperature difference is the highest.

580
Now having seen the experimental result, let us try to see what goes on in a numerical
simulation or an analytical study of mass concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:48)

What we really need to solve is the Fourier heat conduction equation, which gives us
how the temperature varies with time in a three-dimensional plot or in a 3 dimensional
space when there is a certain amount of heat generation taking place in that block of
concrete. And in order to solve this equation what we need is a lot of boundary
conditions.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:14)

581
And these boundary conditions could be in terms of the prescribed surface temperature,
the adiabatic surface temperature, the prescribed heat flux, heat transfer due to
convection, heat transfer due to radiation, the contact between 2 solids, solar radiation
and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:34)

So, if we do that kind of analysis we have to understand also the material properties and
these are the kind of material properties that we need to determine in the lab. So, apart
from the doing techniques experiments with concrete specimens we also need to
understand the heat of hydration of cement and this is the plot of the rate of heat of
hydration or the rate of liberation of the heat of hydration and this becomes an important
input in our simulation exercise.

582
(Refer Slide Time: 36:09)

Then, we have been talking about the effect of the properties of rock on the properties of
concrete in terms of thermal conductivity. Now these are the values that are given for
thermal conductivity in the literature. So, we can use some set of values based on the
published values literature and the kind of aggregates that we actually use in the study.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:43)

We also need information about the effect of aggregate type on the conductivity of the
concrete. Now, concrete needs to conduct the heat that is heat needs to flow through
concrete and that again depends on the properties of the aggregate. Because we should

583
remember that the end of it concrete has about 50 to 55 may be even 60 percent in case
of mass concrete it could be even more volume fraction of coarse aggregates.

So, if the heat is been conducted through the concrete the concrete will behave as a
heterogeneous material, comprising of the mortar phase and the aggregate phase. And
that aggregate phase will have an important varying of the properties of that aggregate
phase will have an important varying in determining properties such as the conductivity
of heat is concerned. So, depending on the aggregate type we will have different
densities and different conductivities.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:45).

We also need to have data for coefficient of thermal expansion of concrete. And that
again varies from aggregate to aggregate and these are the data which have been
obtained for different dams, different aggregate types and are listed here. So, we can see
that the difference could be as much as let say 7.6 is possibly the minimum here and 13.6
is the maximum. So, it is not really twice but it is something which needs to be kept in
mind when we are doing the simulation or analysis.

584
(Refer Slide Time: 38:27)

The density of course, another important parameter and we have plain concrete, reinforce
concrete, the concrete with the sleeve in this case. And these densities also become
important when we are carrying out analysis.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:44)

Experiments in this study were also carried out using small or smaller blocks.

585
(Refer Slide Time: 38:48)

Width 150 mm and there we try to measure the temperature of concrete at the center and
the surface and given the size here the difference is not much a 67.2 and 66.8 as far as
the temperatures are concerned and that is why we can call it a semi adiabatic cube, that
is not there we do not accept much heat transfer to be taking place between the core and
the surface if the temperatures are similar. Similarly, if the size of the cube is 500 mm as
50 centimeter cube of concrete then, the temperature difference is about 80.1 versus 77.5.
So, these are the kind of data that help us better model a large pour of concrete or a
larger pour of concrete which was used in the study here.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:48)

586
If we look at the Discretization and the Modeling issues, this is the mesh of
reinforcement which was used in the concrete, this here is the sleeve which has been kept
and this of course, is the plain concrete. 4 nodded linear heat transfer tetrahedron
elements were used in the analysis and these are the results that we get in terms of
temperatures for the plain concrete specimens.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:15)

So, this is the half space that is the section of this cube and we can see these temperatures
65 degrees and so on whereas, the corners here are the coolest at about 51 degrees.
Similarly, for the reinforcement concrete these are the reinforcing bars that we see here
and we can see in this picture what is the temperature is of these bars and the center core
and so on and so forth.

Similarly, for the reinforced concrete specimen with the sleeve we have this temperature
distribution which is making it much cooler in the neighborhood of the core and this is
scale is quite different the red here is only 60.1 whereas, the 60.1 kind of a number here
in this picture would correspond to a green. So, one must remember that these pictures
the color itself does not have any significance unless we read what temperature the color
is representing.

587
(Refer Slide Time: 41:39)

Now, if we compare the results of the measured values and the analytical values. These
are some of the comparisons that we get in terms of the plain concretes specimen. This is
for the temperature at the center the top phase and the bottom phase. There are two
things which we should be looking for when we are talking of when we are discussing
these results, one is the peak temperature itself what is the number. The second is the
time at which is reached and of course, then we have these rates or the variations during
the cooling phase and the heating phase.

So, if we can see from here that the simulation or analysis using the parameters that have
been determined or use from the literature is pretty much all right as far as the rising part
is concerned. It is quite all right here as far as the peak temperature is concerned it is
acceptable here perhaps but, here there is some problem.

Similarly, as far as the falling side of temperature as far as the cooling of concrete is
concerned there is some difference and the module is giving higher values than the
measured values and that is what we need to rectify, what happens is or what this shows
is that the parameters which were importance for the dissipation part of concrete there is
some error which is creeping into our calculations which is giving a higher result.

588
(Refer Slide Time: 43:27)

Similarly, for the reinforced concrete specimen or for that matter the concrete specimen
with the sleeve. So, in all these cases we see that the rate of temperature rise the peak
temperature these are fairly well represented by the model that has been used, the time at
which the peak temperature occurs that is also more or less captured but, the model that
was adopted was not good enough, if they are looking at the falling side of temperature
that is the cooling phase of concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:03)

589
But as far as the semi adiabatic condition is concerned using abacus the results are pretty
much in agreement for the smallest specimen as well as the large specimen. The smallest
specimen was 200 and 50 mm and the largest specimen was 500 mm.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:23)

Moving on to this stress analysis, we need to have the modulus of elasticity which is
determined. So, if you carry out experiments to determine the modulus of elasticity at 1
day, 3 day, 7 day or 28 day these curves here gives you the a stress strain of concrete.
And we can see that as the edge increases the concrete becomes stiffer and if we
calculate and if we calculate the values of the modulus of elasticity.

590
(Refer Slide Time: 44:53)

At different points and time, we get these values in terms of M P a for 9,000 to 24,000 to
26 and half thousand may be 32000 at 28 days. So, there is a difference of more than 3
times and therefore, when we try to talk in terms of stress development we must take this
into account and incorporate that in the model.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:21)

So, this is the representation which was used in this model to analytically determine or
estimate the values of E as the function of time using E 0, E 1 and E 2 which are defined
here and E 3.

591
(Refer Slide Time: 45:37)

And based on that, we got to do a stress analysis, we find these stress values which are
shown in this graph. Being stressed or the thrust in showing these numbers or showing
these graphs or pictures is not to understand the quantitative nature of the problem so
much as it is to understand that yes, there is a serious amount of mathematics, there is a
serious amount of modeling that goes into the process, and we are able to do it, and get
results which are closed to that obtained in the experiments.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:16)

592
So, if we look at the stress variation with time we find that the stresses are varying at
different nodes or different locations in the concrete lock as a function of time. And this
is exactly the kind of concept that we have to keep in mind when we are trying to
understand whether or not the concrete will crack. If a certain stresses developed then at
that point in time the concrete should have sufficient strength to withstand that stress.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:53)

So, in our discussion today we have covered more ground on issues relating to mass
concrete especially, in terms parameters that can be used by engineers when handling
such concrete and we have discussed some results from a laboratory study to would the
discussion in the first part in perspective.

593
(Refer Slide Time: 47:13)

And before we close as usual, let us try to see if we can understand a little bit more about
the properties of concrete in the bracket of let us say 3 to 7 days more closely we get
information about the effect of the properties of coarse aggregate on the property such as
thermal expansion or conductivity or we modulus elasticity of concrete and study
available a suggested methods for the estimation of temperature of fresh concrete as a
function of the temperature and proportions of the constituent materials.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:49)

594
Now, before I close. I would like to thank my friends in Kajima Corporation in Japan
especially, Dr Mizobuchi who helped me understand this fascinating aspect of concrete
engineering and also to Piyush Raj and Professor Rai for permission to use the material
from the graduate study.

Thank you.

595
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 18
Concreting in cold weather

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

[FL] and welcome to this lecture on concrete Engineering and Technology, which is part
of the module where we are talking about fundamentals, Proportioning, Stages of
concrete construction, Special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration concrete,
Reinforcement and Maintenance of concrete structures. The basic idea being that the
modern day’s civil engineer needs to be exposed to a wide variety of subjects related to
concrete and concrete construction ranging from materials to construction, quality
control and maintenance of structures made with this material. As far as our discussion
on special concretes is concerned what we must understand to begin with is, what makes
a concrete or a concreting operation special?

596
(Refer Slide Time: 01:11)

For that we need to distinguish between ‘normal’ and ‘special’ concretes. And as we
have talked about earlier, there is a certain range of variables over which the operation
can be called normal. And if any of the processes, be it the materials or material
selection, mixing, transportation, curing, placing. If any of these processes goes out of
that range or another special process becomes involved, the concrete needs to be treated
as special.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:46)

597
Now, what are the conditions of placing our environment in which the concrete is being
placed? Is another consideration which could make the concreting operation special.
Properties of concrete: Now, whether it is the strength, workability, density, any of these
properties if they go beyond a normal range we will have to treat the concreting
operation a special. Method of placing: Whether it is being placed using Fermi’s, shoots,
short created, normally placed using pumps, any of these operations can make the
concrete special. The conditions of placing: Whether it is windy or it is chilly and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:35)

As far as conditions are concerned; Let us talk about temperature which is the subject of
concern for a discussion today. What we mean to say is that we talk of a normal range of
ambient temperature in which concrete can be normally placed. That is, we do not have
to take any special precautions for the concreting operations so long as the ambient
temperature is within a normal range.

On both sides of this range therefore, we need to carefully consider the implications and
address issues related to all aspects of the concreting operation. If we have this range
which tells us that, the concreting operation here can be treated as normal, the
temperatures here are colder than that range and the temperature here are hotter than that
range. And in both cases we need to consider the effect of ambient temperature on the
concreting operation. We thus have special conditions arising out of cold weather or hot
weather concreting.

598
Different countries have different average temperatures. The same country may have
different average temperatures over a period of a year; that does not mean that the
construction using concrete cannot be held if the temperature is not within the normal
range. Engineering has now reached a stage where, so long as we take proper precautions
and we are aware of the implications of cold weather or the hot weather concrete, we can
continue with our construction operations.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:26)

We need to talk about materials and proportion; we need to talk about mixing,
transportation, placing, vibration, curing and everything. So, when we talk of hot weather
or cold weather concrete, we need to take care of all the aspects relating to the concrete
operation. Materials and proportioning, mixing transportation, placing, vibration and
curing all these operations we need to examine in light of the implication as that colder
weather or hotter weather. Then, the normally expected range imposes on this operation.

599
(Refer Slide Time: 05:12)

So, continuing our discussion, we focus on cold weather concreting today. And as per the
definition of the ACI 306, American Concrete Institute Committee: Cold weather as far
as concreting operations is concerned is defined as a period when, for more than 3
consecutive days the following conditions exist. The average daily temperature is less
than 5 degree centigrade and the air temperature is not greater than 10 degree centigrade
for more than half of any 24 hour period.

We need to have such a clear definition of cold weather because, only then weather can
write our specifications properly, only then we can talk in terms of proper performance
of concrete and those quality control methods that will apply under these conditions.

600
(Refer Slide Time: 06:06)

So, with this definition let us continue our discussion and see some of the illustrative
example that we see here. From concreting operations going on in cold weather and it is
possible to do this accept that we should be careful as to what we are doing.

The biggest problem with cold weather concrete is the fact that concrete has water and
this water would tend to freeze and not be available for hydration of cement. And if
cement does not hydrate, there is no point in talking about concrete construction, there is
no strength development. Freezing of water has the implication of causing disruption as
far as the pore structure whatever is formed in the concrete. That is also an undesirable
threat.

We also need to ensure that, whatever heat that is generated as far as concrete is
concerned form the hydration of cement, is not quickly dissipated into the atmosphere
and the concrete remains in a condition that hydration can continue. So, we need to have
a very very strong insulation that provides the right environment for the concrete to
hydrate or for the cement in a concrete to hydrate. It is like trying to protect the concrete
in the early stages and ensure that the concrete reaches the desired strength. Once that
happens then, concrete can be treated as normal concrete subjected to cycles of cold
weather or hot weather or whatever it is. But, the initial period is what requires very very
careful attention of engineers.

601
(Refer Slide Time: 08:07)

What happens when concrete freezes? Pore water in concrete starts to freeze. There is a
change in the chemistry of the pore water. Because, once part of the water is frozen, part
of the water is not, the concentrations of the ions in the different parts of water are
different. The changes in concentration of ions in the pore water cause changes in the
freezing point of the water and so on.

Now, if the cold weather is sustained, hydration more or less stops. And this adversely
effects the strength development in concrete. And, freezing and ensuing expansion of
pore water or ice occupying, slightly more volume than water as we know, may be
detrimental to the long term integrity of concrete. So, we really do not begin on the right
foot, if we do not take precautions that need to be taken in cold weather concrete. So,
today’s discussion will focus on, what really engineers need to do to ensure quality
construction in cold weather.

602
(Refer Slide Time: 09:18)

Here are some of the implications of cold weather concreting. If we look at this picture
here, it says increasing volume versus the length of exposure to frost. If the age at
freezing is small then, we see that the increase in volume is the largest. But, if the age at
freezing is 36 hours, this being just 4 hours. So, if you are able to protect the concrete
from freezing, for us little as 36 hours; we can more or less control expansion involving
that we are likely to encounter. So, these kinds of diagrams or data help us understand,
why we need to protect the concrete in the initial part.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:08)

603
As far as the setting time of concrete is concerned: We have talked about, how the setting
time of concrete is determined and is different from the setting time of cement. Concrete
is being determined by wet sieving and having the same principle of penetration
resistance. We find that, as the temperature reduces, as the ambient temperature becomes
colder and colder, the setting time increases. And this has implications in terms of
obviously strength development, form work removal and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:47)

This here is another picture which shows, in order to prevent damage to concrete due to
freezing at an early age we need to ensure that, at least till a strength of about 3 and a
half MPa is reached, the concrete needs to be really protected. If this data is to be
examined, we will find that the resistance to frost. As far as with the degree of saturation
is concerned, anything beyond 90 percent of saturation is highly detrimental. The
resistance to frost is very, very small. Whereas, if the saturations are lower than this; of
about say 90 percent, we have a reasonable resistance to frost.

604
(Refer Slide Time: 11:38)

As far as our concerns in cold weather concreting, we need to ensure that we have
appropriate damage control to prevent the concrete from freezing at early ages. We need
to ensure that concrete develops the required strength for a safe removal of formworks.
We need to maintain curing conditions that foster normal strength development without
excessive heat being used from outside. We need to limit the rapid temperature changes
in the concrete to prevent thermal cracking. We need to provide protection to the
concrete in manner and extent that its performance over the intended service life is not
adversely affected.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:18)

605
Now as a thumb rule, for every 10 degree reduction in the concrete temperature, the
setting time of concrete almost doubles as we saw in a previous slide. Thus, the duration
over which the concrete is vulnerable to damage due to freezing increases. So, long as
the concrete does not set, the concrete is very vulnerable to freezing, the water there in is
vulnerable to freezing. It should also be remembered that, when warm concrete is placed
on cold sub-grade it will lose heat and its temperature will drop.

Concrete is often placed against the ground or against formwork. We need to ensure that
the temperatures of this contact surface whether, it is the ground or the formwork is not
abnormally low. This we can only ensure by heating the surfaces. And that is another of
the concerns that we have. We need to take adequate precautions during curing to ensure
that the concretes not damaged in early stages and the hydration is allowed to continue,
which will only ensure the appropriate strength development.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:27)

Now, concrete that is protected and properly cured will obviously mature to its potential
strength despite subsequent exposure to cold weather. So, it is only in the initial stages,
the first few hours or may be a day or two that is when special attention needs to be paid
to the curing regime to the temperatures that the concrete is exposed to and so on.

So, except in heated protective enclosures, little or no external supply of moistures are
required for curing during cold weather. So, if you are using a closed enclosure to cast
the concrete structures, there of course, we need to do moist curing as usual. But

606
otherwise, we have to be careful that we do not need to provide too much water from
outside which will only add to the problem of freezing of that water.

Concrete placed during cold weather will develop sufficient strength and durability to
satisfy intended service requirements only if it is properly produced, placed and
protected. As far as production is concerned, we need to take precautions to make sure
that the concrete temperatures are such that, the placing operation can be taken place.
The concrete does not cool while it is being transported. Even though not defined the
cold weather, protection during spring and fall is required.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:58)

Now, let us come to, what are the actual things that an engineer can do or a builder needs
to do in order to ensure proper construction during cold weather. So, we come to
recommended practices. We must remember that, cold weather or hot weather or any
such special conditions is after all a matter of practice. And, the practice has to be based
on the understanding of the principles. And those principles are: Loss of water, water
required for hydration, the temperature required to ensure that hydration continues and so
on. And the practice basically means, what are the kinds of things that we need to do, in
order that these conditions are appropriately maintained. First thing is that, we need to
plan the operation very carefully.

607
(Refer Slide Time: 15:56)

Prior to the pour, clearly define the cold weather concreting methods that will be used.
What are the kind of precautions that will be taken at the batching plant during the
transportation of the concrete to the site and while placing?

What are the kinds of curing methods that will be used? Do we have the kind of
materials available at site to carry out all those operations that cause for a very, very
careful planning before carry out the actual operation? This can be ensured through a
meeting or a discussion where, the contractor, the specifier, the producer, the laboratories
involved and everyone have a clear understanding of what their roles and responsibilities
in the operation are. Where a specified concrete strength must be attained in a few days
or weeks, protection at temperatures above 10 degrees is required.

So, basically what this 10 degree says is that; during the curing period, concrete in its
real, the immediate neighborhood of concrete must be maintained at a temperature of
about 10 degree centigrade. That obviously requires heating of the environment. Now,
how we achieve it, is a different matter.

608
(Refer Slide Time: 17:17)

We could accelerate the hydration process in cold weather and that could be done by
several methods. The reduction of the setting time and the acceleration of strength gain
often results in substantial savings due to shorter protection periods, faster form reuse,
earlier removal of shores, and less labor in finishing flatwork.

The setting time is more important in flatwork finishing. Flatwork finishing refers to
structure such as, high ways or slabs in multistoried buildings and so on. Early strength
gain is more important from the point of view of form removal. The economic system
remains the same. If the formwork cannot be removed, the cycle time for the next pore is
adversely affected. And that happens where there concrete is being done, in cold weather
or normal temperatures. Therefore, if you are able to ensure early strength gain we would
be able to get a more productive cycle. This acceleration, as far as the early strength gain
is concerned, can be achieved by using appropriate port land cements. We can use
additional cement or we can use set accelerating admixtures or accelerators.

Now, as far as accelerators are concerned, calcium chloride is perhaps the most
economical accelerated we used. But, one must be very careful in using calcium chloride
because of the presence of chloride ions. Now, these chloride ions are known to be
deleterious from the point of view of corrosion of the reinforcement. And therefore, in
cases when the structure is reinforced, calcium chlorides are often appropriated from use.

609
In other words, we should be careful in choosing the admixture. It should be chloride
free and meet any other requirement that may be set by the designer, as far as the choice
of materials is concerned, as far as the placing temperature is concerned and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:28)

What are the records that need to be maintained? Temperature Records: Temperature of
the concrete determines the effectiveness of protection, regardless of air temperature.
Maintaining temperature records of concrete in place is very very essential. We shall see
later on that, maintaining these records also helps us understand or relate to strength
development through the conceptive maturity.

Exposure to Freezing and Thawing: An concrete obviously needs to be air entrained, if it

is likely to be saturated and exposed to freezing and thawing cycles during construction
or during service. So, we have seen graph which tell us that, if the concrete is saturated,
the resistance to freezing and thawing is poor.

610
(Refer Slide Time: 20:24)

Coming to the properties of fresh concrete that can be used or that should be used in cold
weather. Everything else being equal, lower slump and or water cement ratio mixes are
particularly desirable in cold weather for flatwork because that reduces the bleeding and
also has the effect of reducing the setting time. We need to take into account all kinds of
things. Like the ‘Truck Travel Time’; how much time does the concrete need to be on the
move during transportation? And that includes the distance from the plant of placement
and so on. And, if these things are not accounted for the properties of the concrete can be
adversely affected.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:09)

611
Now, as far as the placement temperature and protection in cold weather is concerned,
the ACI provides recommendations for the temperatures for placement and protection.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:18)

Now, depending on the air temperature whether, it is above minus 1, between minus 18
to minus 1 and below minus 18. Depending on the section size or the minimum
dimension of the member in millimeters let us say, less than 300 or 300 to 900 and so on.
This table here, gives us the minimum temperature of concrete as mixed. Then, there is a
temperature as placed and maintained.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:55)

612
Let us look at this picture here or this data here which is the summary of the same table
which was shown earlier. A, B and C are temperatures of fresh concrete as mixed. So,
this is what is the temperature. These conditions are the temperatures of: The ambient
temperature being minus, greater than minus 1 and in the range of 8 minus 18 to minus 1
and so on. And this is the temperature of fresh concrete as mixed.

Whereas, D is the temperature, which is as placed and maintained. So, there is a mixing
temperature, there is a placing temperature and there is a temperature at which the
concrete needs to be maintained. So, ACI 306 gives us a clear guideline as to, what is the
expected temperature which we need to maintained at which the concrete may be mixed.
Because, the moment it has mixed and is placed it tends to lose heat on account of the
very very cold atmosphere.

The condition E here is the maximum allowable gradual drop in temperature in the first
24 hours after the end of protection. So, there is within curing regime or within the
duration of curing, there is a time where the concrete is protected and beyond that it is
unprotected curing. So, during the protected curing period, there are certain conditions to
be met. And beyond the protection period while the concrete is still being cured, the
condition the set of conditions may be different.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:45)

Now, as far as preparations for concrete before the concreting operation is concerned, all
snow, ice and frost need to be removed. Concrete should not be placed on frozen sub-

613
grade. It must be thawed and if required compacted. Thawing can be done by Steaming,
spreading a layer of hot sand of gravel, removing and replacing the unfrozen fill,
covering sub-grade with insulation for a few days, using heaters under insolated
blankets.

Many cases concrete cannot be placed on frozen or very very cold sub-grade. These
issues or this aspect of concrete not being cast against a very cold surface should also be
born in mind when we are casting concrete against formwork. Whereas, this kind of an
operation or all these conditions are applicable when we are casting concrete against the
sub-grade. For example, as may happen in the case of highway construction and so on.
The principle should also be born in mind, when we are casting normal concrete in beam,
slabs and so on.

The temperature of surface in contact with fresh concrete should be at least 2 degrees
but, not more than 5 degrees higher than the concrete temperature. Having said that the
surface should not be cold to a very large level, that does not mean that the surface can
be heated or should be heated indiscriminately. A certain balance has to be maintained
between the temperature of the surface against which the concrete is been cast and the
temperature of the concrete itself.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:44)

One of the methods that is often used in cold weather concreting is heat the constituent
materials. A constituent material means water. So, the temperature of water may be

614
raised but, not more than about 800 C. The pipeline and the storage tank that hold the
water obviously then, need to be properly insulated to avoid any heat loss for the water to
literature the batching plant

If the heating of water is not sufficient then, we may also need to resort to heating of
aggregate: the sign the fine aggregate and the coarse aggregate. The coarse aggregate and
the fine aggregate could be frozen having lumps of ice in them. And they need to be
thawed before batching. There needs to be a maximum temperature to which they can be
heated. As in the case of water, aggregate cannot also be allowed to be heated
indiscriminately.

Depending on what method we are using for transportation of concrete: Conveyor belts,
batching plant bins, agitator trucks and so on needs to be appropriately insulated. Let the
time of transportation involved is equally important because, unless we know the time,
we cannot talk in terms of the difference between the temperatures of concrete. As
mixed, that is at the batching plant and as placed, which will be at the site.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:17)

This here is a picture of aggregate storage. This is an extended form. So, this part here,
can be pulled all the way here, in order to create an enclosure which is like this and can
be used to house the aggregate. Once we have enclosed the aggregate in a certain confine
space like this, it is easier and more economical to maintain the temperature inside this
enclosure and that goes a long way in maintaining the temperature of fresh concrete.

615
(Refer Slide Time: 27:52)

Here is an equation that helps us estimate the temperature of fresh concrete based on the
temperatures of the constituents and their relative proportions. Using this equation and
the kind of proportions that we are using, we can understand or estimate; that ok, if we
want a certain temperature of fresh concrete, what should be the most economical way of
achieving that? By the way of playing around with the temperatures of the constituent
materials, whether, that is water or it is aggregates. It is very clear from our discussion
that fresh concrete needs to be protected.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:45)

616
It needs to be protected from early age freezing by using insulation. We need to use
additional protection or heat, if temperature suddenly drops very low. We need to
determine or estimate the length of protection period using maturity. Maturity is a
concept as we will see later, which integrates the time and the temperature.

We also need to ensure that, removal of forms is done taking care that allowable
temperature drop within the first 24 hours is not exceeded. As far as the concrete is
concerned so long as it is in contact with the formwork it is protected. We can even try to
heat the formwork to ensure that the concrete is enclosed in an environment which is in
an acceptable temperature range. Moment we remove the formwork, the concrete is
obviously now exposed to ambient temperatures. And we need to ensure that, the
temperature drop that occurs between the first 24 hours after the formwork has been
removed is in an acceptable range. Sudden, cooling of the surface of concrete could be
very, very detrimental from the point of view of the strength development or the integrity
of the surface concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:14)

Continuing from that point, we have that so long as the forms are in place, concrete
adjacent to the forms or in contact with the form work retains some moisture. And the
moment the form work is removed, this situation changes. Exposed horizontal surfaces
are very susceptible to rapid drying in a heated enclosure. So, either way if we are
casting a slab and we are trying to heat the environment in which being cast, the surface

617
will be susceptible to drying. If we are not heating the environment then, the surface
water or the water in the layer closed to the surface is susceptible to freezing. So, it is a
very, very difficult and a very thin line that an engineer has to walk to make sure that the
concrete is appropriately protected at the surface. And therefore, we need to use or
sometimes it is prescribed that we use curing compounds to prevent drying of the
concrete.

Steam curing and water curing may be done but it should be stopped well in advance of
protection period. Such treatment makes the concrete nearly saturated. That is, if we are
curing it water or steam, the concrete is very nearly saturated to the surface as far as the
levels of saturation is concerned. And if the protection is withdrawn while the concrete
saturated, the likelihood of freezing when protection is removed increases and that is
something which we need to watch out against.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:56)

This here is a chart which has been developed to identify or better understand the curing
of concrete after the protection period. The extent of drying in concrete depends on the
temperature of the concrete ambient air, the wind speed and the relative and the relative
humidity of the atmosphere. If the limiting evaporation rate is higher than a kg per
square meter per hour, we need to have protective measures.

How do we use this chart? We enter this graph at the air temperature level, go up to an
appropriate humidity level here, as shown here. We go up to humidity level, turn right

618
and come to the concrete temperature, wherever we want to go. And then, come to the
bottom and see, what is the wind speed. And corresponding to that wind speed, we get
the rate of evaporation in terms of kg per square meter per hour. And if this rate is
unacceptability high, we need to have special measures in place to protect the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:15)

Continuing with the recommendations for cold weather concreting: If the ambient
temperature is more than 5 degrees, the conditions are more or less normal. We do not
need to heat the materials. We can have a limit under placement temperature; no
insulation is required, no curing during protection is required, time of protection is no
specific limit. And there is curing after protection is normal water curing is all right.

So, here too if you see, we are trying to divide the curing period into 2 parts: The part
when the concrete is protected and the part, when the concrete is not protected. That is,
curing after protection.

619
(Refer Slide Time: 33:56)

Now, if the temperature is between 0 and 5 degree centigrade, we may like to resort to
heating of water to get the temperature of concrete in a manageable range. Placement
temperature: We could put a minimum of 7 degree, in order to ensure the concrete is
protected from freezing. As far as insulation is concerned, we may prescribe the use of
mineral fiber blankets with a certain thermal resistance. We may say that, however we do
not require curing during protection. As far as the time protection is concerned, we can
lay down limits in terms of hours or in terms of strength development. We can relate that
to the use of accelerators. And as far as curing after protection is concerned, we do not
need to do anything special, if the rate of evaporation is less than a kg per square meter
per hour. But, if it is more, we could always use a curing compound.

620
(Refer Slide Time: 34:58)

When the temperatures are sub 0, we may need to resort to not only heating water but,
also the heating of aggregates, in order that the concrete needs the minimum temperature.
Similarly, we need probably need to have mineral fiber blankets for insulation of the
concrete and we of course, have and we can of course, prescribe the time of protection in
terms of time or in terms of strength and talk terms of the curing after the protection.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:26)

This table here, gives us a variation of the thickness of insulating blankets which may be
required to maintain the concrete at a temperature of 10 degree centigrade for 3 days. We

621
would recall that, we talked about maintaining the temperature of 10 degree centigrade,
in order to ensure that the strength development or the hydration continues at an
acceptable rate. So, this is temperature can be maintained, if we have proper insulation.
And that insulation depends upon, what is the cement content that we have. If the
cements are higher, if the cement content is higher, we may be able to make do with
slightly lesser insulation because the amount of heat that is generated on account of
cements is higher. It also depends on the thickness of the concrete and the ambient
temperature of air.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:26)

As far as strength is concerned, we need to have a handle on the strength for safe
removal of formwork. For any specific early strength requirements that we may have
from the service point of view and at the end of it for safe loading of the structures
during and after construction. We can achieve this by using higher cement content, using
mineral admixtures, using accelerating admixtures and maintaining higher temperatures
for increasing the hydration of concrete.

622
(Refer Slide Time: 37:01)

Now, explaining the concept of maturity which we have related to the previous
discussion just now. The strength gain in concrete is a function of time and the
temperature. The estimation of strength development can be made by relating the time
temperature history of field concrete to cube strength under standard conditions the lab.

What is really done is, we calculate the maturity of concrete which is the sum of a
temperature component and the time component. And once we have this maturity, we try
to relate this maturity to the compressive strength. T 0 here, is a datum temperature,
which is the reference temperature, which is taken as minus 5 or minus 10 degree
centigrade.

623
(Refer Slide Time: 37:52)

And here is an illustrator example where, we talk in terms of a maturity factor which is
degree centigrade time’s hour and the compressive strength. Note that, the maturity has
been plotted on the logarithmic scale. So, log m versus the compressive strength has
been found to be a more or less linear relationship. And therefore, as far as cold weather
concretes are concerned, in order to get a particular strength, we can estimate the time
and the temperatures. In order to obtain a particular strength, we can calculate or
estimate the maturity that we need and this maturity is related to the time and the
temperature.

So, if we know the time that we want to achieve a certain maturity in 3 days or 5 days,
we know what kind of temperature regimes we must have. Or, if we know the
temperature regimes, we can find out the time that it will take for a particular maturity to
be reached which in turn would give us the estimated strength.

624
(Refer Slide Time: 39:04)

This of course, is just the example of the estimation of easy to ease strength of concrete
using the concept of maturity. So, if we know this temperature of the structure, if we
know the temperature history, we have these time intervals, we can calculate the
maturities and find the estimator strength. In order to calibrate it of course, we would like
to; in order to calibrate this relationship or establish the relationship first time, we need
to carry out tests which would involve the same kind of cement, the kind of aggregates
and so on being used at site. Now let us, take a look at some illustrative examples which
is basically, pictures of cold weather concreting which tell us, what kind of methods we
need to use.

625
(Refer Slide Time: 39:51)

This picture here for example, shows a enclosed structure which has been erected, in
order to protect this concrete. Similarly, as far as panels are concerned, we could see the
covering of membranes. As far as this picture is concerned, it is just an application of
curing compounds being spread on concrete to service effective sealants.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:20)

The picture on the left hand side here is that of a concrete footing pedestal being covered
with a tarpaulin to retain the heat of hydration. So, if this concrete is just allowed to dry
or allowed to be exposed to the atmosphere which could be very cold, the strength

626
development is highly retarded. We can address that issue by covering appropriately with
a tarpaulin. Similarly, as far as the pictures my right is concerned. We need to carry out
extensive preparation to build enclosures and insulate equipment, in order to ensure that
construction in cold weather can be carried out unimpeded. So, we can see all these
claddings and the kind of temporary structures that have been erected around the
structure under construction. Or, for that matter the batching plant, the agitator truck and
so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:18)

The picture on the top here is a stack of insulating blankets. These blankets trap heat and
moisture in the concrete and provide beneficial curing. The errection of these kinds of
wind barriers helps us protect the concrete slab which has been cast here and enable us to
carry out the finishing operation. In this case of course, the silver lining in the cloud is
that because, the concrete remains workable for a longer period of time the finishing
operation can be carried out with a little more relaxed pace.

627
(Refer Slide Time: 42:01)

On the top here, we see tarpaulin heated enclosures maintains an adequate temperature
for proper curing and protection during severe and prolonged winter weather. And at the
bottom, we see polyethylene plastic sheets admitting daylight are used to fully enclose a
building frame. And the temperature inside is maintained back again at 10 degree
centigrade. So, if we carry out these kinds of precautions, if we maintain these
precautions that are absolutely origin to not be able to carry out construction and cold
weather. But, if we do not then, we are severely compromising the quality of
construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:46)

628
This picture here is that of insulating formwork. In this case, we are talking of using an
insulated column formwork made of 19 mm high density plywood inside, 25 mm rigid
polystyrene in the middle and 13 mm rough plywood outside. So, the formwork used in
the columns here is specially designed. It is not simply a timber or a steel plate. What
specially designed insulating formwork which has 2 layers of timber or plywood filled in
between is something else. The picture on the bottom here, shows the spreading of
blankets or insulating sheets.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:35)

This picture here is that of a hydronic system showing hoses on the left, laid on the soil
to defrost the sub-grade and on the right here, we have these pictures in the formwork to
warm the forms well the concrete is being pumped. So, largely from the discussion that
we had today. We see that, cold weather concreting is really a highly engineering
operation. In the sense that there are practical issues that need practical solutions and
engineers need to be very careful in choosing the solutions. Economics is at the back of
the mind but, not at the cost of quality. Whether, it involves the heating of the materials
whether, involves heating the materials or using insulating formworks or the sub-grade.

We need to understand, we need to understand the basic principles of concrete and

concrete engineering from the point of view of hydration, strength development and
curing. If these things are understood, we are doing pretty good as far as cold weather
concreting is concerned.

629
(Refer Slide Time: 45:03)

So, before we close let us just take a look at some of the things which we could do from
here onwards. We could carry out simple experiments to better understand the variation
of setting times of concrete with ambient temperature. We could study in greater detail
the maturity-strength relationship and how that changes for different cements. We could
collect information about the available curing compounds, insulating blankets and
special formworks like the once that we saw in the case of the column. We could collect
information about the methods available for heating constituent materials and insulating
batching plants and other equipment. With this, we come to an end of our discussion
today.

Thank You.

630
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 19
Concreting in hot weather

(Refer Slide Time: 00:18)

Welcome to this lecture on Concrete Engineering and Technology, where we are talking
about all aspects relating to material selection, proportioning, construction and
maintenance, as far as concrete structures are concerned.

631
(Refer Slide Time: 00:31)

We have talked about special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:36)

And in order to talk about special concretes, what we should know is what makes the
concrete or the concrete operation special.

632
(Refer Slide Time: 00:43)

For that, we have talked about variables which are now normal or out of that range. Any
variable has a normal range, and then if it is out of that range, it means that the concrete
should be considered special.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:03)

Now, what those variables could be are material, the conditions, properties, placing
methods, conditions and so on. If you use fibres to the concrete it becomes special, if the
temperature is too high or too low it becomes special, if the properties in terms of
strength, workability, air content, density, so on. If they are out of the normal range, then

633
the concrete becomes special. If the method of placing or conditions of placing are
different then normal, the condition is special. And therefore, concrete needs to be
treated as special, which means that all aspects relating to that concrete would need to be
special.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:43)

As far as temperature is concerned, then we talk of a normal range of temperature in

which concrete can be placed normally. It means that as far as temperature is concerned,
if this is that line which talks about temperature, there is a range here where concrete can
be placed normally. As far as this temperature is concerned it is abnormal, it is special
and similarly on this side also concrete deserves a special attention. So, here we are
talking about low temperatures, and therefore we are talking about cold weather
concreting. Whereas, on this side we are talking of high temperatures, and therefore we
are talking about hot weather concrete.

634
(Refer Slide Time: 02:33)

Once we talk about a special concrete, whether it is hot weather, low weather, fibre
reinforced concrete, anti-washout concrete or whatever, we need to be concerned about
all aspects relating to concrete operations. The materials in the proportioning, we need to
be bothered about mixing methods, the transportation of concrete from the ready mix
plant to the site of placement. We are bothered about or we are better we bothered about
the placing methods that are used, the vibration or compaction methods that are used and
also the curing methods.

And after this, after the concrete is an operation that is the structure is in service, we need
to bear in mind that the structure was constructed using a special concrete, even during
the time that it is being maintained. And that means, operations such as inspection and
nondestructive testing is taking place.

635
(Refer Slide Time: 03:30)

But, that is a different story we have already talked about cold weather concreting at a
different occasion, and today the discussion is focused on hot weather concreting.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:42)

Now, hot weather concreting essentially implies a lot of grain on the concrete surface,
immediately after it is placed, and this depends not only on the temperature of the
concrete and ambient air, but also the wind speed and relative humidity of the
atmosphere. And this picture relates some of these variables, we have the air temperature
here, varying humidity is at this access, we have the wind velocities here varying

636
concrete temperatures; and we have the rate of evaporations here for the different wind
velocities.

So, basically the where to use this chart would be to start that an ambient air temperature,
go to somewhere here look up the relative humidity. Turn right come to wherever the
concrete temperature is dropped down to where the wind velocity is, and try to find out
what is the applicable or estimated rate of evaporation. Now, if the rate of evaporation is
higher than a critical number, let us say 1 Kg per square meter per hour. we need to put
in place special measures; recall that we have been talking about, performance based
design, performance based specifications.

And this here is there example where we are now inventing or we are putting forward a
parameter are called the rate of evaporation, which should be at the bottom of our
thought process, when we are trying to specify concrete under hot weather conditions. Or
for that matter in the cold weather conditions, it is not enough to say that the temperature
of the concrete should be so much, the wind velocity should be less than so much, and so
on. What we are really interested to control is the fact that, the rate of evaporation from
the surface of concrete should not be a certain should not be more than a certain number.

And that is something which we must understand as to what is an acceptable rate of

evaporation, that we can live with, which we can counter using normal methods of
curing. If that rate of evaporation exceeds that number, we need to put in special effort
and special provisions as far as our specifications and quality control is concerned.

637
(Refer Slide Time: 06:14)

Now, hot weather as far as definition is concerned, is a combination of some of the

following conditions that are known impair the quality of fresh or hardened concrete,
largely by way of accelerating the rate of moisture loss, and the rate of cement hydration.
Rate of hydration, the rate of moisture loss or rate of evaporation is what we were talking
about in the previous picture, and some of these conditions are high ambient temperature.
Naturally, if the temperature of the atmosphere is high, we can expect that the rate of
evaporation is going to be high, and that is what will necessity that the concreting
operation we called hot weather concreting.

Similar, is the case that the temperature of concrete, the temperature of fresh concrete is
unacceptable. So, we have to have a range, where we say that well the temperature of
fresh concrete should not exceed a certain number, less it attract the provisions of hot
weather concreting. Low relative humidity also encourages, evaporation and loss of
moisture from surface and we need to be careful about that.

Wind speeds also promote loss of moisture from the surface, and we have to look at a
combination of all these factors before we decide, whether or not hot weather concreting
provisions apply or not, as far as a construction project is concerned. We must remember
that, these provisions need to be put in place, the values of these parameters needs to be
put in place. Because, the moment we have the moment we have hot weather concreting
provisions apply, there are economic or financial implications.

638
And it is important that those conditions which are tracked special provisions, which
have financial implications are specifically laid out, less there be a dispute between the
contractor and the client or the consultant and so on. So, it is very important in this day
and age, where professions, where the construction profession is becoming more and
more professional, that these provisions are as clearly laid out as possible.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:55)

Continuing our discussion on the technical side of it, these pictures here shows some
cracks that may arise in concrete owing to hot whether, so we can see some typical
shrinkage cracks here. And similarly, shrinkage cracking on this surface of concrete,
these cracks are largely surface cracks not very deep, but aseptically on the peeling and
the less. We must remember that as far as hot weather concrete is concerned, it may
stiffen prematurely preventing it from being compacted and finished properly. So, if
concrete loses it is workability quickly, naturally it is compatibility and finishability
suffer carrying on from that point, the temperature of concrete may rise to the point that
thermal cracking may appear as it cools. And this is something which we will talk about,
when we discuss issues related to mass concrete, and some discussion further down this
module.

639
(Refer Slide Time: 10:00)

Now, hot weather at the time of mixing of concrete or placing, or at the very early age,
affects the concrete in both, the fresh state as well as the hardened state.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:16)

And to classify this discussion, let us talk about the fresh state first, it leads to an
increased water demand, what it means is that, the required amount of water, the unit
water content to achieve a certain workability increases, if the temperature is higher. It
leads to an increased rate of slump loss, as far as slump loss is concerned, we have talked
about this that as time goes on. And if read part slump on the y axis, if the concrete

640
biggest with this slump that is the concrete slump, at the time of let say the discharge
from the mixer in the batching plant.

The moment hydration starts, and that is starts as soon as water comes and contact with
cement and therefore, hydration is already going on, even while the concrete is being
mixed. Now, as more and more hydration products are getting formed, the workability is
actually going down, if this was the initial slump over a period of time, we can expect
that the concrete will stiffen. And this loss of slump may be gradual as shown here, or it
could be rapid as it is shown here, so as far as hot weather concreting is concerned, we
are looking at this scenario or more possibly something like this, which is more rapid.

And this slump loss really means that from the time that the concrete is released from the
batching plant, till the time that it reaches the site of placing that is the construction site.
We may already have had a certain amount of slump loss depending on the temperature,
and this part needs to be factored in, when we are proportioning the concrete mixes,
when we are transporting the concrete and so on, and so forth. Some of these points we
will see subsequently in this discussion today. poor finishability.

Now, finishability as far as concrete is concerned requires that the concrete has a certain
amount of moisture at the surface, as the surface becomes dryer the concrete becomes
less finishable. And that is exactly what is happens when the concrete is being placed in
hot weather, so as far as concrete in hot weather is concerned it has poor finishability.
There is an increased tendency for plastic shrinkage cracking, there is an increased
difficulty in controlling entrained air content, and there is an increased potential for
thermal cracking.

641
(Refer Slide Time: 13:01)

Now, coming to hardened concrete there is lower 28 day, and later day strength resulting
from the higher water demand, because you would have probably added more water,
higher concrete temperature of both. We could be encountering decrease durability
resulting from cracking, it could be shrinkage cracks, it could be thermal cracks or any
other cracks. We should remember that no matter what the width or the depth of cracks,
any amount of cracking at the surface makes a certain amount of the cover concrete,
vulnerable and dysfunctional, as far as it is role in protecting the reinforcement is
concerned.

So, whether it is surface cracks or whether it is deeper cracks, we should try to present
cracking in concrete, because the existence of such cracks is not taken into account at all,
when we are designing the cover thickness. In adequate or increased permeability as a
result of the high water content, in adequate curing, carbonation, lightweight aggregates
and improper matrix-aggregate proportions. As I said was finishability needs to greater
variations in the surface appearance of the concrete.

Decreased abrasion resistance arising out of a tendency to sprinkle water to facilitate

finishing. Now, this here is the purely engineering or a purely field phenomenon, a work
man whose trying to finish the concrete at the surface, at site would tend to spray or
sprinkle some water on the surface, so that the concrete concerned be finished. Now of
course, concrete can be finished and that water will or at least part of that water will also

642
evaporate. But, that needs to an increased or that needs to a decreased abrasion
resistance, because at the end of it the surface concrete now as a higher amount of a
water; there is an increased tendency for drying shrinkage and differential thermal
cracking.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:18)

Now, as far as the ambient conditions are concerned, it is known that a concrete
temperature in the range of 10 to 15 degree, is perhaps desirable to maximize the effects
of concrete mixing and properties. But such temperatures are not always practical, it is
simply not possible to be able to mix, and place concrete in this temperature range or any
temperature range for that matter. And it is with this thought that specifications are
provisions in course, which are basically applicable to only a certain region.

And therefore, written keeping the conditions in that region in mind are a very important
document which must address conditions such as this, that is ambient conditions being
non ideal. So, engineering is all about working in a non-ideal atmosphere, especially
civil engineering where we are really working at sites, where natural conditions or
weather conditions or simply beyond our control. All that we can do is to control local
environments, at the site of placement, but not the environment around it.

A study of specifications would reveal that generally it is required, that the concrete
when placed should have a temperature of less than 29 to say 31, 32 degree centigrade.
Most specifications in the world would say, that anything beyond 32, 33 degree

643
centigrade would qualify for a very special treatment as far as concrete is concerned.
And similarly, different specifications may lay down different numbers, as far as the
level at which that phosphoric temperature would necessitate the concreting operations to
be called hot weather.

In other words, the conditions need to be determined on case to case basis, as far as hot
weather is concerned and temperatures of approximately even 35 to 38 degrees may be
acceptable. In fact the importance of specifications and variations there in, can be seen
even is something very different that is the temperature at which concrete is cured,
standard curing conditions for water and temperature when concrete cures for normal
quality control is concerned are to be kept. In certain specifications the concrete should
be stored in 20 degree centigrade, in certain specifications it could be 27 degree
centigrade and so on.

This variation comes from the fact or at least, the one of the important considerations
that leads to this difference is the fact that, concrete is actually been exposed to different
temperatures, in different countries. And those specifications therefore, must reflect that
temperature number 1, and number 2 it is uneconomical to spend resources in cooling or
heating are curing bond to maintain standard conditions. So, it is a combination of
economics and real conditions or the actual conditions at site, that primp is specifications
in different countries or different regions to have different curing temperatures. Carrying
that thing forward, we could also imagine that these specifications would be different as
far as definition of a hot weather, or for that matter even a cold weather concrete is
concerned.

644
(Refer Slide Time: 19:11)

When we working with hot weather concrete, we may like to take special steps such as,
moistening the concrete aggregates that are dry and absorptive. If we moisten the
aggregates, they would absorb less water, they would tend to absorb less water and
whatever water is available shall we used for maintaining the workability of the concrete.
You may keep the concrete temperature low, either cooling the aggregates or by cooling
the mixing water, we need to dampen the sub grade and forms prior to placing concrete.

Concrete should not be cast against very hot surface, whether it is a ground surface or it
is a form work. And if the form work is couching hot especially for example, if we are
using steel plates, the plates could be really very hot in a hot summer day; so those plates
need to be cooled down by sprinkling water. At the same time we must ensure that the
water is not sticking to those plates, and the sub grade does not have a pool of water
gathered some where.

We may erect temporary windbreaks to reduce the wind speeds, over the concrete
surface, so like I said it is not possible to control the wind speeds in an open site. But we
can, but what we can do is to erect temporary structures to put at the actual site of
placing, at least till such time as concrete has gathered sufficient strength; or the fresh
concrete is protected before it is exposed to the elements of nature. We could erect
temporary sunshades to reduce the concrete surface temperatures.

645
(Refer Slide Time: 21:03)

And continuing our discussion, we may use materials and mix proportions that have a
good track record in hot weather conditions. We need to organize a preconstruction,
conference to discuss the precautions required for the project, and the actual scheme of
operations, and figure out whose responsibility will be the different operations.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:28)

It is often recommended to have trail batches of concrete, and mock up exercises to

validate assumptions, and ensure quality construction, as far as this part is concerned this
is related to the discussion here. At the end of it there are assumptions, there are

646
estimates, whether it is the a strength development is concerned, whether it is the rate of
evaporation is concerned; whether it is the special curing method that is going to be used
is concerned, whether is the actual material which is going to be used as a curing
compound is concerned and so on. Therefore, it is always better to have a trail run use
the actual materials, use the actual proportions of concrete, cast a mock up structure in
the actual conditions. And measure the parameter that we want to use as a yard stick or a
benchmark of the form, of concrete in that weather.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:36)

As far as water requirement is concerned, we already said that higher water temperature
cause higher concrete temperatures. And hence more water is needed for the same slump,
and extra water tends to decrease the strength durability, water tightness and other
properties of concrete. Drying shrinkage increases with the total water content, and
concrete cast in hot weather is also susceptible, to thermal shrinkage as it subsequently
cools. And effort should be made to use cooled water, as it will reduce the concrete
placing temperature and also help in reducing the water demand, for a given level of
workability.

647
(Refer Slide Time: 23:14)

This picture here shows how ice is being crushed, and will be used in the batching plant
as a partial substitute for mixing water, substituting ice for a part of mixing water,
substantially lower the concrete temperature. And ice whether it is crushed shaved or
chipped, when a placed directly into the mixer as part of the mixing water, can reduce
concrete temperatures. But it should be remembered that not more than a certain number
of course, the number that I have given here 75 percent, but it should be remembered that
not more than a certain percentage of the mixing water should be used as ice, we cannot
put all ice in it.

Certain amount of water with a certain amount of ice, the ice must not melt before it is
placed in the mixer, but must melt completely prior to the completion of the mixing of
concrete. So, these are some of the specifications or these are some of the precautions
that one must take, this part here would basically define what kind of ice pieces or
particles can be used in the process. Because, the mixing time is fixed, and during that
time it is not possible perhaps for large chunks of ice to melt, at the same time if the ice
is shaven or chipped to very, very fine size, it will be less effective.

648
(Refer Slide Time: 24:38)

Carrying on as far as ingredients is concerned, let us talk a little bit about cement, the
cement type affects the hot weather performance of concrete. Now, cement type means
the chemical composition or constitution of cements, in terms of the (( )) tricalcium
silicate, dicalcium silicate, tricalcium aluminate and the C4F. Generally use of slower
setting port land cement may improve, handling characteristics of concrete in hot
weather. Because, if the cement tends to set slower than normal, it gives so much more
time to the engineer, to be able to place the concrete and finish it, and that increases the
quality as far as the final product is concerned in hot weather. When using slower
hydrating cement, the slower rate of heat development and the simultaneous dissipation
from the concrete, results in lower peak temperatures leading to less thermal expansion,
and reduced risk of thermal cracking.

649
(Refer Slide Time: 25:44)

We may also try to limit the cement content or the unit cement content in the concrete,
but keeping in mind that the amount of cement that means to be there is obviously there,
for example, from the point of view of strength and durability. On the other side of it,
concretes that have high strength at early ages, that are required to have high strength at
early stages. Also tend to develop high concrete temperatures during initial curing such
concretes therefore, need to be provided thermal protection to ensure gradual cooling, at
the end of it, the basic discussion is the following.

The temperature increases and then decreases this is time basically if we look at how the
temperature of concrete changes, this is a picture which shows that as the hydration
continues the temperature increases and then reduces. This increase in temperature is
coming from the fact, that the heat dissipation is lower than the heat generation on
account of hydration. So, the two parameters that define this discussion is the peak
temperature, and the time it takes for this temperature to rich.

If we have somehow able to reduce this peak temperature to something like this, or we
are able to delay the peak as shown here, our life as far as the problems on account of
common stresses will be much easier. So, as far as hot weather concreting is concerned,
the discussion is more or less similar; hydration is also related to strength development.
So, as we have talking about here, in concretes which are required to have high early
strength, they also tend to have a high generation of heat in the begging. And if that

650
happens we need to have special precautions taken to ensure cooling, or appropriate
cooling, in order to make sure that cracking does not happen in the end of the day.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:06)

Coming to mineral admixtures or supplementary cementitious material, such materials

including fly ash ground granulated blast furnace slag etcetera, can be used. And there
use as partial replacement for port land cement, lead to a slower rate of setting and also a
early strength gain to the concrete, which is desirable as far as hot weather concreting is
concerned. So, we reduce the amount of heat generated, and also we delay the hydration
process, slow it down, in cases when rapidly setting cements are being used, mineral
admixtures may be used to improve the performance of concretes. Further, the use of fly
ash may also reduce the rate of slump loss for concrete, under hot weather.

651
(Refer Slide Time: 29:00)

Continuing our discussion with chemical admixtures, admixture that have both water
reducing and set retarding properties are used widely, when we are trying to work with
hot weather concretes. And they can be used to avoid strength loss that may otherwise
result from high temperatures and concrete, and super plasticizers are used to produce
flowing concretes on the hot conditions. And this improve property of concrete permits
more rapid placement, and consolidation of the concrete. So, it is really just using the
properties of plasticizers or super plasticizers, (( )) advantage, as far as hot weather
concreting is concerned. We should remember, however to make it a point to check the
compatibility of the chemical admixtures used with the cement, and at high temperatures,
or at the normal temperature at which it is being used.

652
(Refer Slide Time: 30:02)

As far as aggregates are concerned steps can be taken to ensure, that the degradation and
the particle shape of the aggregate is such that, the water demand is minimized. We
could consider bending of aggregate as an option, and remember that whereas, in one
hand crust coarse aggregates contribute to a higher water demand, they also provide
better resistance to cracking on the other hand.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:25)

653
This picture here shows storage of aggregates or facilities that need to be erected, or put
in place at site in order to protect the aggregates from the high temperatures that we are
likely to experience.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:38)

Coming to a proportioning of mixes, ingredients in that proportions should be such that,

they contribute positively, to the satisfactory performance of concrete in hot weather,
Cement content should be as low as possible. And in general we should proportion a
concrete for not less than slump of 75 to 80 mm, to permit prompt placement and
effective consolidation in the form work. If we choose to have slumps which are stiff,
they make the handling of concrete difficult, and if the handling is difficult in hot
weather especially, the situation becomes even more complicated.

If we work with a reasonable slump, the concrete can be handled effectively or more
easily in terms of transportation, placing, vibration and finishing. As we have said
before, the performance of concrete mixers proposed to be used in a particular work,
should be tested under this specific conditions in which even the concepts. Or in which
even variable such as, the delivery time and the environment expected at the project or
accounted for. This basically means that the slump loss at a particular temperature is
properly accounted for when we are trying to do the design of mixes.

654
(Refer Slide Time: 32:07)

Now, coming to production and delivery, the production facilities should be capable of
production range, required by the project, we must remember that. Concrete is being
produced at the batching plant, it is been transported through trucks or whatever other
means, and is being placed at a particular site. Now, unless the placing rate or the rate of
consumption the placing site, the rate at which its being transported and the rate at which
it is reproduced in the batching plant, these three parameters are properly synchronized;
here will be problems as far as getting the concrete of the right property, at the right
place is concerned.

The problems will be there even in normal weather of course, it is only compounded
when we are talking in terms of hot weather, and that is why we need to have special
provisions or special attention being paid, in order to control the production and delivery
operations. It is obvious to say that, that concrete plant and delivery units should be in
good operating conditions, and like I have said that any stoppage or mechanical
breakdown can be more serious, under hot weather conditions.

Then in moderate weather, or normal weather we must be open to the idea that hot
weather concreting operations, may be scheduled at times other than, the normal daylight
hours, the days are typically much hotter than the evenings or nights. And in analysis
should be carried out to ensure or to determine, how much is the benefit of carrying out
the casting operations at night. And if those benefits in terms of the performance of

655
concrete, and in terms of the quality of concrete construction that we get out way, the
inconvenience of carrying out the operation in the night we must adopt that.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:14)

As far as the temperature control of concrete is concerned, the temperature of concrete of

usual proportions can be reduced, by about 0.5 degrees by any of the following methods,
a 4 degrees reduction in cement temperature, 2 degree reduction in water temperature,
and 1 degree reduction in the temperature of aggregates. We must remember that the at
the end of it concrete is a mixture of cement, sand, coarse aggregate and water, or may
be mineral admixture. Each of these have their own temperatures, and when they are
mixed in a certain proportions, there is reason to believe that the temperature of that
mixture will be related to the temperatures, and the relative proportions of these
ingredients.

We leave it out as an exercise to carry out a calculation by which we try to find out, that
if the concrete has usual proportions that is normal proportions. If you are talking in
terms of a concrete which is a water cement ratio about 50 to 55 percent, as a water
content of 160 to 180 Kg’s of water per cubic meter and so on. We want to change or if
you want to change the temperature of concrete by half a degree centigrade, we have the
option of playing around with the temperature of cement, water or the coarse aggregate,
cement water or the aggregate.

656
And because of their different proportions in the mix, their temperatures need to be
adjusted to different degrees to get the final result, or to get the same final result.
Aggregate temperature should be kept as low as possible, by means such as sprinkling
and fog spraying of coarse aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:11)

And stock piles as far as batching and mixing is concerned, the procedures in the hot
weather conditions are no different from good practice, under normal weather. Operators
often batch concrete in drier conditions than desired, to avoid producing a slump which
is higher than they specified, addition of a small amount of water may be required at the
job site. Now, this part here that is addition of a small amount of water in job site, is
something that we have not talked about anywhere in this course, except when we were
talking about proportions perhaps.

Where we say that out of 180 Kg’s of water that is required we mix a 180 Kg’s at the
plant, and the remaining 20 Kg’s at site. Now, this normally should not be done, concrete
must be produced as a single entity, as an entity which is ready for use. Except under
special conditions such as hot weather concreting where concrete needs to be, where
some water may need to be added at the site of placement, to enhance the workability of
the concrete.

So, what happens in that case is that, if the slump of the concrete has gone down to a
certain point, we add the water and remix the concrete, we somewhat increase the slump

657
and therefore, the placeability of the concrete. Usually that should not be done, and the
implication of doing that should be thoroughly examined before it is permitted for use.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:51)

Continuing with the discussion the amount of mixing, and the speed of the mixer should
be held to the minimum to avoid any unnecessary heat gain, as far as concrete is
concerned. Specifications governing the total number of revolutions of the drum usually
set a limit of say 300 revolutions for the truck mixer.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:11)

658
Now, coming to the delivery of concrete from the batching plant to be site of placement,
the time lapsed between the start of mixing to the placement site, should be minimized.
And we need to have a proper planning to coordinate the dispatch of mixers, and the rate
of concrete placement, and that is what we talked about when we said that, the delivery
plan has to be drawn up. And this will reduce a delay in the arrival or waiting periods of
agitator trucks or whatever means we are using to transport the concrete.

We could also consider the possibility of scheduling major placements of concrete,

during periods of lower urban traffic loads, so that the planning is more reliable. And this
is another aspect of trying to work in the half day periods, that is late evenings, early
nights or may be mater times.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:11)

Coming to slump adjustment, the actual materials and proportions, the slump loss
between the plant and the job site should be established. The slump loss relationship, as
to how much slump loss actually occurs in a particular concrete, in a given condition that
needs to be established very clearly, when we are working in hot weather. Now, if on
arrival at site the slump is less than that required minimum, there may be provision to
add additional water, provided that this addition does not mean that the maximum
allowable water is exceeded.

And that is what I said when I am, and that is what I meant, when I said that the addition
of water at the site should be very, very carefully and tediously permitted, (( )) after

659
examine all the implications. And use of chemical admixtures may facilitate the
adjustment, as far as slump is concerned, but the performance of these admixtures in hot
weather, including a tendency to promote segregation should be independently verified.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:20)

This process of the addition of water, in the second stage or a third stage is called
retempering, so this retempering refers to addition of water and remixing of concrete or
mortar, which has lost workability to become unplaceable or unusable. Any water
addition in excess of the proportioned maximum should simply be privated. Adverse
affects on strength, strength development and any other detrimental effects should be
absolutely established, and only then permission for retempering should be given

660
(Refer Slide Time: 41:02)

When it comes to placing, we need to minimize exposure to adverse conditions consider

placing of slabs, after roof structures and walls are in place or erecting temporary shelter
at the time of construction. Mobilize protective measures, according to the local weather
reports, and preparation should be made to transport, place, consolidate and finish the
concrete in the least time, at the fastest possible rate. And the sub grade should be moist
yet free from standing water or soft spots, if we are trying to place concrete against the
ground.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:41)

661
Now, coming to the curing and protection which is important part of a special operation
in this context, concrete should be protected from high temperature, direct sunlight, low
humidity and drying winds. High initial caring temperatures are detrimental to the
ultimate strength, to a greater degree than high placing temperatures, and that must be
born in mind. And concrete should be carefully cured for at least the first 7 days, taking
special precautions such as covering with water proofing layers, in cases when there are
large differences between the day and night temperatures.

Certain environments do not have a large difference, as far as the day temperatures and
the night temperatures are concerned, but in certain cases there are very big differences
between the night temperatures and the day temperatures. This has to be explicitly
understood by the concrete engineers, or construction engineers, when they are trying
place concrete under these conditions.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:45)

Now, coming to curing methods as far as moist curing of flatwork is concerned, the best
thing is to moist cure the concrete, as far as the strength of concrete and drying shrinkage
considerations is concerned. We may consider ponding covering with clean slay,
ponding with water or covering with clean sand which is kept continuously wet,
sprinkling etcetera. We get consider the option of membrane curing of flatworks, use of
liquid membrane forming compounds is the method of curing where the job conditions
are not favorable for moist curing. And these membranes restrict the loss of moisture

662
form the concrete, there by allowing development of strength, durability and abrasion
resistance of the concrete. Of course, as far as concrete in forms is concerned a form
should be covered and kept continuously moist, during the early curing period.

So, if we see here, there is nothing really new as far as hot weather concrete is
concerned, and these are common or common sense methods, or to do things as far as
normal operation is concerned, except that in hot weather, it becomes even more critical
that these operations are carried out the due (( )).

(Refer Slide Time: 44:13)

This picture here shows, a membrane or a waterproof membrane covering a concrete

structure after the forward has been removed.

663
(Refer Slide Time: 44:21)

Now, coming to the testing of concrete, the frequency of inspection for properties such
as slump, air content, ambient and concrete temperature, the relative humidity and unit
weight, in hot weather conditions may require to be higher than for normal conditions.
Now, this is another aspect of quality control, the frequency of testing needs to be related
to the likelihood of damage, and since the likelihood of damage in hot weather is higher,
the frequency should be higher.

Simple experiments such as the measurement of the actual evaporation rate, can be
carried out to validate the results, and plan the concreting operations. We recall the graph
that we saw to estimate the rate of evaporation, depending on the temperature of the air,
the temperature of concrete, the wind speeds and so on; that rate can be validated using
simple experiments of water evaporation.

664
(Refer Slide Time: 45:21)

Continuing with our discussion on testing, we need to take care the specimen that are
taken are properly stored, at an appropriate temperature, and moisture loss from them is
prevented. We should use molds which do not absorb water, and or expand when in
contact with moisture or when immersed in water, there are different kinds of molds
which are available as far as concrete specimens are concerned.

Additional test may be carried out to get data for strength under field conditions, and
milestone such as went to stop a certain curing regime, what should be the time for
formwork removal, application of load and so on. Given the fact that we concrete is not
being cured under normal conditions, or standard conditions, the data found standard
conditions is of limited value and therefore, we may need to carryout additional test,
under specific conditions

665
(Refer Slide Time: 46:18)

These pictures here show the dampening of sub grade, to cool the surface before the
concrete is placed. And fogging of air to raise the develop relative humidity, above the
concrete which is been placed as measures for ensuring proper construction, or quality
construction in hot weather.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:44)

Before we close, a couple of quick questions, try to make a case study of projects
involving hot weather concrete, including the conditions of that project, which could be
in terms of temperature, the relative humidity, the temperatures in day, the temperatures

666
at night, different seasons and so on. The actual mix of concrete used, the types of
methods which were used, for quality control, carry out the numerical exercise to study
the effect of cooling, one material or another on the temperature of fresh concrete.

We saw that cement, water or the coarse aggregate needed to be cooled, to different
degrees in order to get a certain reduction, in the temperature of fresh concrete. And now
that is something which needs to be numerically carried out, and I am leaving out that
exercise as a homework, we could also list some provisions for hot weather concrete in
local specifications, try to make a list of some of this specifications. This presentation
here is largely based on the provisions, and the discussion that is given in American
concrete institute, kind of specifications or documents.

There are other documents which address these issues there are text books which deal
with it, some of them are given in the references to this module you may like to draw
comparative statement. Outline in the different, outlining how different specifications of
books define hot weather concreting.

Thank you.

667
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 20
Roller Compacted Concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

Welcome to another lecture in this course on Concrete Engineering and Technology. We

are talking about revising the fundamentals of concrete, proportioning of mixes, stages in
concrete, constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration concrete,
structures in reinforcement, and also issues relate into maintenance of concrete
structures.

668
(Refer Slide Time: 00:37)

We will continue our discussion today with the special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:42)

And to reiterate what makes a concrete or a concrete operation special.

669
(Refer Slide Time: 00:51)

Is the fact that one or more of the following are outside a predefined normal range, it
could be in terms the material used, the conditions or the environment in which concrete
is been placed. It could be in terms of the property of the concrete that we are casting, the
method of placing or the conditions in which the concrete is being placed.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:18)

So, today’s discussion will focus on a special method of placing the concrete, and we
will be talking about roller compacted concrete.

670
(Refer Slide Time: 01:29)

Now, what is roller compacted concrete? It is a concrete there is compacted by a roller,

that is the fresh concrete that we have should be such that, it is dry to the extent of being
able to resist the sinking of a roller. And it should be wet to the extent that the mortar can
be distributed within the concrete, through this vibration. It is not vibrator or compacted,
using internal vibrators or nil vibrators listed there is a vibrated roller, which is moved on
the surface of concrete, in order to compact this concrete.

And therefore, given the fact this roller could be quite heavy, the concrete has to be such
that, it is dry to the extent that the roller does not sink. And it should be wet to the extent
that, mortar can still be moved around within the words of the aggregates. The concrete
can thus be defined as or looked upon as of very dry a zero slump mix, which is placed
using damp trucks and compacted using a vibratory roller. Now, this has found
applications in primarily to areas of engineered concrete construction, damps and
payments, and we will see the moment the reason for that.

671
(Refer Slide Time: 03:08)

Let us take a look at a large block of concrete such as, what we would expect in a gravity
damp or long rote which is being made with concrete, we are talking of rigid payment
constructions. So, in these two cases we can have block construction that is we brake this
large block down into smaller blocks, let us say block 1, block 2 and block 3.

And these three blocks are caused one after another with the suitable gap and so on, and
so forth; that is one way of casting this large concrete block. Another possibility could be
that instead of blocks, we talk in terms of a laid construction, in which case we divide
this block not as blocks like we did last time that is this way, we do not do that.

672
(Refer Slide Time: 03:55)

Instead we divided the block in layers, and caused this as layer 1 followed by layer 2 and
finally, followed by layer 3, so this a fundamental difference between casting this large
block with blocks, which is like this or in terms of layers which is like this. Now, what
are some of the differences between block construction and layered construction, block
construction needs form work to be erected and the concrete to be placed in relatively;
and concrete to be placed in relatively large heights.

As a result of that, it becomes more difficult for the heat that is generated on a account of
hydration of cements, to escape to the surface. Whereas, in the laid construction, the
surface area is large and the thicknesses relatively small, thickness being relatively small
facilitates movement of heat into the atmosphere; and helps prevent develop any thermal
gradients within the concrete. So, given a certain set of conditions, the chance of thermal
cracking happening in laid construction is much smaller compared to block construction.

And that is one of the reasons why roller compacted concrete or this kind of laid
construction is preferred, basically roller compacted concrete refers to this kind of laid
construction, where each layer of concrete is caused. And then compacted by moving
rollers on this surface; so to that extent it is similar to compaction of soil, when we do
any kind of rote construction or we want consolidates soil we move rollers, layer by
layer to compact to soil. And that is exactly what we do when we are compacting the

673
concrete, so that is what is the very fundamental, a very preliminary understanding of
roller compacted concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:44)

Now, continuing with the applications, it is mainly used where large volumes of concrete
are required with the further condition, that the concrete is largely on reinforced. The
presence of reinforcement makes the placement of concrete difficult, and adds a very
different dimension to the casting. And therefore, as for as roller compacted concrete is
concerned, attention is generally confined top plain concrete.

And as I mentioned the conditions which are met for these and the two areas, where
these conditions are met are pavements, and gravity dams. So, these are the prime
structures, rich are cast or can be made using this technology of roller compacted
concrete. So, in this case the specialty or the non-normal nature lies in the method of
compaction that we are adopted, instead of using normal internal vibration; we are using
a very special kind of compaction method.

And this necessitates that we take proper care in all other steps, material selection,
proportioning, determination of properties and so on, and so forth; as we shall seen our
discussion.

674
(Refer Slide Time: 08:09)

There is the set of pictures which will tell us or give us an idea as to what roller
compacted concrete is all about, so here we see concrete bring dumped at a site using a
tipper. So, if we can make out that this concrete is nothing but, more or less moist gravel
or it is very stiff zero slump concrete. It is very different from the kind of concrete that
we have normally seen, which has a slump of let say 10 centimeters or 8 centimeters of
may be sometime a little more, this concrete looks very different.

As for as moving such blocks of concrete or moving such fresh concrete is concerned, it
is very common to move it with bulldozers, so the dozer basically spreads this concrete
around in the area in which it is required.

675
(Refer Slide Time: 09:05)

Followed by this spreading we have this kind of a vibrate re-roller, that is moved on the
concrete to compact this layer. So, we have this layer of concrete which is now being
compacted by moving a vibrate re-roller on the surface. And this picture here is a over
view of a construction side, where roller compacted concrete is being used, so there are
tippers, there are dousers and there are rollers, so it is a, so it is an example of highly
mechanized construction.

And these pictures I hope help you understand, why we need large free areas of concrete
placing, why we do not want reinforcement to pre-present in the concrete, as for as the
interference with the concreting process is concerned. So, this is a bird’s eye view or a
rough understanding of roller compacted concrete.

676
(Refer Slide Time: 10:12)

Now, once we go back to the, let us get back to the description of this concrete once
again, it is relatively stiff mixture of aggregate, cementitious materials and water that is
compacted by vibratory rollers, and hardened into concrete. And depending on the
requirements the strength of RCC which is roller compacted concrete, may be specified
to be in the range of 25 to 30 MPa. So, now this is strength is not outside the normal, we
very often deal with 25 to 30 MPa kind of concrete, except that this concrete is placed
very differently compacted very differently.

And due to that reason, in the fresh stage it looks very different, the constituents
materials for RCC are blooded in a mixing plant into heterogeneous mass, which has the
consistency, similar to damp gravel or zero slump concrete. So, the basic principle or of
concrete engineering is not violated, we still have the same materials that is aggregate
cementitious material, that is cement and the fly hash and water. Except that, we are now
compacting it using rollers and finally the product is of course hardening into concrete.

677
(Refer Slide Time: 11:31)

As far as the late thickness is concerned, we will discuss it a little more later on, usually
the number at adopted is about 250 to 300 mm in one layer. Now, this layer thickness is
related to several parameters or factors, including the size of the aggregate. Including the
compatibility of the concrete that depends on the type of roller being used, the
effectiveness of the roller in terms of it is ability to compact the concrete and so on.

The layers are compacted with steel vibratory rollers with final compaction, sometime
being provided by rubber tire rollers; so this is a matter of pure engineering and working
at sites.

678
(Refer Slide Time: 12:13)

And as far as the advantages concerned, we have low cement consumption, because the
water contented self is very low, we have minimal formwork cost, because the method of
placement as we good see, that there is hardening form work required, except at the (( )).
There is a minimized risk of thermal stresses as heat dissipation, is facilitated by the
large surface area and smaller thickness which means, there is low temperature rise and
virtually low thermal ingredients.

We have a reduced over all caused in terms transportation, placing and compaction and
finally, therefore, roller compacted concrete gives us a cheaper and faster option for
certain types of construction. It cannot obviously be used for normal construction in
terms of buildings or pressures and so on.

679
(Refer Slide Time: 13:10)

As far as the cost saving is concerned, the RCC payments, if we are may be if we are
making pavements or rods using a roller compacted concrete, we do not use doubles and
still reinforcement of forms, and this results in significance savings. As far as the
increased placement speed is concerned that helps us a lot, this couple with the fact that
RCC or roller compacted concrete can be looked upon as basically wet compacted
gravel.

It is time to reason that light traffic can be allowed to go all these pavement, more or less
immediately after the concrete has been placed. Of course, heavy traffic cannot be
allowed and lesser amount of is strength development has taken place, so this helps as a
lot as far as using roller compacted concretes, in pavement construction is concerned.

680
(Refer Slide Time: 14:07)

Now, because of the very low water content, the mixing of roller compacted concretes is
not often very productive, if we use a central mixing plant, so we often use a pug mill is
often which is a high energy mixing device. And we have to be very clear careful as far
as the moisture content of the RCC’s concerned. Even a small increase or an over dos of
water or an under dos of water could make the concrete very different, and if there is
more water the roller may begin to leave marks, and that something which we do not
want.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:58)

681
We do not want a pavement where the roller is moving over this width, let say to leave
marks along the edges which brings us to the theoretically studies on vibration energy,
and compaction effects. See what we are looking at is trying to place or concrete having
a certain thickness, and this has some amount of aggregates, and the rest of it is mortar.
Now, if we are trying to apply a vibratory load at the surface and what we want to
happen here is compaction, that is we want the mortar to move into the voids, if there are
any voids within the aggregate system; and we want to get read of any air that will be
trapped inside.

Now, the effectiveness of whether or not, this concrete here at the bottom would get
compacted. Because, of this kind of vibratory loads being applied the surface, would
depend on the thickness; the characteristics that we have here of the vibration in terms of
the amplitude. And the frequency, the mass of the roller setting there and also the
properties of the intermediate concrete.

So, with all these factors put together, we can define densities of this concrete as a
variable, or as a parameter which can be used for quality control of roller compacted
concretes, it is very important that concretes are compacted. Now, in the case of roller
compacted concrete, it would depend on the kind of energy that is being impact, on the
kind of energy that is imported to the concrete, which is related to the like I said; the
frequency the amplitude of vibration, and also the number of passes, how many times
thus the roller pass over a given section.

Now, one way of writing as specification as far as roller compacted concretes or quality
roller compacted concretes is a concerned, is to say that such and such roller would make
3 passes or 6 passes or something like that. Or it can be said that it will be a certain
number of passes, or a certain amount of density that is obtained in the concrete, because
that is really the performance parameter. So, we are talking in terms of defining density
of the roller compacted concrete as an important parameter, in defining the quality of the
roller compacted concrete as placed.

682
(Refer Slide Time: 17:53)

(( )) to say now, the roller selection is in important part now of the construction using
roller compacted concretes. And some of the concentrations that governs the selection of
roller, for use in RCC construction could be the is of maneuverability, compacted force,
the dram size, frequency an amplitude of vibration, and the operating speed. Besides
maintenance cost and the ease of operation, we should also remember that the roller
should also be compactable with the size of the project; workability of the concrete, lift
depth, extent of consolidation and space limitations.

So, all these things put together would help us choose the right roller to be used at a
particular site, needless to say that if you do not choose the right roller will not get the
right density. If you do not get the right density we do not get quality construction
similarly, the project might be delayed or it may take more time, then if we choose the
roller a preoperatively. So, we must choose the equipment that we have or that we use in
a particular site, very, very carefully considering the variables involved.

683
(Refer Slide Time: 19:16)

Getting back to the discussion on thickness which I said was about 250 to 300 mm, and it
is critical from the point of view of properties of concrete in situ and the quality control.
On the one hand there is a relationship between the maximum size of the aggregate used
whereas, on the others related to the type of vibrate equipment used. And only a certain
thickness can be effectively vibrated with the certain equipment, the extent of
compaction achieved is related to the weight and other characteristics of the roller, and
the number of passes.

So, all these things put in together and engineering must choose the thickness of the
roller compacted concrete to be used in a particular project. So, if we are having a
pavement which requires us to have let us say 600 thick concrete, 600 mm thick
concrete, it is up to the engineer to decide, whether it he will do 2 layers of 300 or 3
layers of 200, and so on. And chooses equipment accordingly, often times depending on
the equipment available the kind of concrete and the thickness can be chosen.

684
(Refer Slide Time: 20:33)

Let us now talk about materials in RCC, that is the ingredients.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:41)

Now, the ingredients are not different from normal concretes, accept that in the case of
RCC, the aggregate constitute about 70 to 80 percent by volume, and naturally they
should be hard durable particles, and should be appropriately evaluated. Appropriately
evaluated means, we already have that test to carry out evolution of aggregates, in terms
of the physical properties. And those tests are no different simply because they aggregate

685
is being used in RCC, so we need to carry out the same tests we may have different is
specifications.

Another thing to remember is that the volume of aggregate is higher here and therefore,
that has implications in terms of the entire properties, and so on. And therefore, its very
important that the aggregates of properly chosen, in the fresh state they aggregates effect
the workability, and the potential to segregate, and also the ease of consolidation with the
vibratory roller. It is not only the ease of vibration, but it is also the is of movement that
is being post around, the wave is saw using a dozer.

So, if you use very large particles, it may become difficult to move them around using
dozers, and ensure that they are uniformly distributed throughout the concrete mass. And
that is something which we cannot a fort at the end of it throughout the structure,
whether we do it by blocks or we do it with layers. The assumption that the concrete at
different places as far as the structure is concerned is the same cannot be violated, so we
must ensure that the concrete is a homogeneous mass throughout the structure.

And that could compromise, if we use very large particle as for as course aggregates are
concerned, because of the tendency it promotes segregation, the difficulties involved in
moving them around, and so on. We must also remember that RCC mixes are not as
cohesive as normal concrete and therefore, aggregate segregation may also be
consideration, and larger aggregate reduce voice, and thus the paste demand.

So, if we increase the size of the course aggregate the surface area reduces and the paste
required as far as concrete is concerned goes down, that was our understanding, and it
still is our understanding as far as concrete engineering is concerned. On the other hand,
we must remember that large aggregates pose a challenge in handling, is spreading in
compaction, as we have discussed just now. And therefore, as compromise the maximum
size used as far as roll the compacted concrete is concerned, is generally about 20
millimeters.

686
(Refer Slide Time: 23:37)

Fines add to the cohesion of the concrete and contribute to filling the voids and therefore,
should be considered for use. As far as cement issues materials are concerned any
cement can be used, but from the point of view of the heat of hydration use of low heat
cements, may be considered. Having said that, we should remember that roller
compacted concrete is after all being placed in relatively thin layers, and thermal stresses
are not likely to be a major problem.

And therefore, this issue is rather in significant as far as most roller compacted concrete
construction is concerned. Other materials such as blended hydraulic cements, grounds
slab or flyash may be used after using tests, to ensure that the quality of construction in
the quality of concrete, in a particular project is not compromised.

687
(Refer Slide Time: 24:25)

Now, chemical admixtures are weapon that a concrete engineer has now to alter a
property of concrete, but now in this case when we are talking of using chemical
admixtures in roller compacted concrete kind of a construction. We should re-iterate and
recall that the effectiveness of chemical admixtures is related to the cement properties,
and also the amount of cement present in the matrix.

In fact, the chemical admixture added itself is dozed in terms of the cement content, even
we say 1 percent chemical admixture by weight of cement, naturally if the cement
content in the mix is very low, the total amount of admixture is also low. We may like to
use retarders is certain cases, because the help delay the setting time and also give us
sometime as far as compaction is concerned, and preventing cold joints between layers.

So, we may like to use a retarder in roller compacted concrete, if we want to have some
more time for compacting the concrete. And that would depend on what is the kind of
mobilization we have, whether we have the right kind of dozers to move the concrete
around, and the right kind of vibrators to compact the concrete. If there is a problem
there, we may like to have or we may want to have more time, during which the concrete
can be compacted.

And that is when retarders come in handy, but given the consistency of the RCC mixes
that is in terms of slump and workability, the real effectiveness of chemical admixtures is
rather limited. In fact, as far as air and air-entraining is concerned it has been found that

688
it is difficult to control the air content in RCC construction, heartily because of the small
cement content; and the method of compaction and so on. Not only the dosage of the air-
entraining each in required is much higher than in normal concrete, but also they
effectiveness in increasing the durability of the concrete against freezing and thawing,
has been found to be suspect.

Having said that the durability of RCC construction as far as cyclic, freezing and thawing
is concerned is suspect, I would also like to add that there is literature with suggest that.
If roller compacted concrete pavements are covered with as fault for a certain thickness,
the durability of the RCC is no longer problem, continuing our discussion, let us talk
about proportioning and RCC mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:23)

Now, here given the very special method of compaction, sometimes we use the soil
compaction approach to proportion of RCC mix, which is different from our traditional
method of proportioning concrete mixes which we have practice so far. In this case what
we do is use principles of soil mechanics, and soil compaction to produce a dense mix,
where there is optimum water content to produce maximum dry to density.

We know that inside mechanics or in soil, or in geotechnical engineering we have the

concept where if we continue to add water little by little to a soil mass, the density
increases a plus certain point in time and then reduces. So, this moisture content at which
the density is higher or the highest is call the optimum moisture content, or the OMC and

689
that concept is what used in proportioning and RCC mix in this approach. We must
remember that in this case, the amount of paste may not fill all the voids in the concrete.

We look at concrete in this kind of an approach, as the material made up of different

particle may made up of particles of different sizes and gradation. So, we know the
gradation of the aggregate particles being used, we know the gradation of the cement
being used, and what we try to do is to find the optimum moisture content which would
give the maximum density. Naturally in this approach, the concept of water cement ratio
is not so relevant, so to iterate we have optimum moisture content, and that gives us the
highest compaction, and that gives us highest strength.

So, the strength is not really being talked about now, in terms of the water cement ratio
of the concrete mix, but it is being talked about as related to the moisture content in the
roller compacted concrete mix.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:58)

Now, as against this we of course, have the concrete engineering approach where the
paste content is high, high paste content means the amount of paste exceeds the voids in
a concrete. And that is the traditional approach that we are already know that we have the
water content, that we have the cement content, we make sure that the paste content is
hard then the void content, and proportion the mixing so on.

690
The functional parameters for the design of concrete mix could be compressive and shear
strength, permeability etcetera, and these could also depend on the type of construction.
So, in the case of roller compacted concrete as we saw, concrete is placed in layers and
therefore, the shear strength and the bond strength between layers is a very important
parameter, in addition to the compressive strength or the concrete per say. Also given the
fact that a roller compacted concrete is used very often in dam construction, permeability
is an important consideration.

And thus specifications for dam concrete very often, laid down maximum acceptable
permeability of water determine by a certain method. Now, in the case of roller
compacted concrete the issues is more critical, because concrete is being placed in layers,
and these layers, if they do not bond properly, if they do not bond in a manner that the
concrete becomes smaller thick, the chances of permeability through the joints is very
high. So, it is not only important that the permeability we control through the concrete,
but it is also important that permeability be controlled through the joints.

Whether not we are not specific requirements in terms of having a maximum

permeability through the joint and so on; that is concerned it would depend on whether
or not a protective layer of normal concrete is provided on the upstream face or not.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:11)

Now, what is this protective layer, let us explain that, let us discuss that, if we have a
damped which is shown here and it is caused in layers as shown here, so we have dam

691
where we have constant in layers, using roller compacted concrete kind of a method. If
this was the upstream said which had the certain amount of water setting here, we are
looking at permeability through the joints, and also through the concrete. Now, this is
very important if we do not have any normal concrete at the interface, if this entire
concrete was caused in layers. So, in this kind of a situation of course, permeability of
the concrete is a very, very major consideration.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:02)

However, if the concrete was caused in a manner that this layer, or this lift of concrete
along the height of the dam is caused with conventional concrete. That is it is not caused
in layers as shown here, in that case we are not so much bothered about the permeability
of the roller compacted concrete.

692
(Refer Slide Time: 33:30)

Now, coming to curing of the RCC, the layers of RCC should be normally cured that is
there is no reason to believe that the curing can be done, or needs to be done any
different layer. It should be ensured that successful, if layer is not caused on a dry layer
of concrete, because as it is the amount of water present in a concrete is less. And if that
water to gets absorbed in previously cast lift it is likely to lead to a poor quality
construction.

So, we must mixture that the previous lift is not necessarily wet, but is such that it will
not absorbed more water, special cared needs to be taken in curing the final lift, initial
lift is alright, because more concrete will get caused on that. But, as far as final lift is
concerned we need to control the moisture condition, for much longer period of time and
ensure proper hydration of the lifts. Even though the area is large use of curing
compounds may not be very effective, in the case of roller compacted concrete
construction, as the surface of a rough.

And it may not be possible to provide full coverage of the compound throughout the
large surface area. So, even though we may like to do it or it helps us, if we can simply is
spread a curing compound on the surface, but unfortunately in roller compacted concrete
that is not always possible.

693
(Refer Slide Time: 35:15)

(Refer Slide Time: 35:23)

Now, coming to the properties of this specially cast or specially compacted concrete is
concerned, the fundamental rules of normal concrete apply which some modifications,
with little water begin with there is practically no bleeding or shrinkage in this concrete.
Of course, property such as creep coefficients of expansion is specific heat and
conductivity, which are important from the point of view of thermal stress generation.
These properties are strongly determined by the properties, and the proportion of the
course segregate and that is at a much larger volume than normal concrete.

694
Permeability concrete is sometimes a critical property, and there could be a difference of
several orders of magnitude in a construction given the method of construction. So, the
method of construction that we have is gross, that is it need not be ensuring that the
properties at the micro level or at the level of a very small element, or the same through
the concrete. But, we only ensure that by and large, the properties of concrete are the
same, if we actually carry out measurements of strength or permeability we will finds
that there is, a reasonable mortar of variation as far as these properties are concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:45)

Now of course, compressive strength is related to what is a cement ratio in conventional

RCC that is if the proportional have been carried out in a high pate regime that is using
the traditional, reinforce concrete of the concrete proportioning approach. But, it is some
time shown in relation to the moisture content in the mixture, where the proportioning is
based on soil compaction. Some studies where compressive strength are obtained using
course from Canadian projects, showed that the strength of concrete varies between 25
and 35 Mpa in these projects.

695
(Refer Slide Time: 37:23)

Now, this here shows, how should is specimens be prepared as far as roller compacted
concretes are concerned. Now, given that roller compacted concretes are not internally
vibrated, it makes no sense to internally vibrate, the cylinders that are used for quality
controller roller compacted concretes. So, what we do here is we use a especially
designed vibrating hammer to prepare the cylinder, and that is more or less the same
effect as a vibrated roller; this vibratory hammer being applied at the surface of the
concrete in this cylinder.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:12)

696
Tensile strength is an important property as far as pavement construction is concerned,
and some researchers after view that in RCC, that is when using roller compacted
concretes. The strength should be determined using course, where we determine this split
tensile cylinder, and not necessarily from the flexural test of beams. Now, the reason for
that is something which I would like to leave to you to ponder about.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:44)

And think this picture here shows the course from the roller compacted concrete
construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:50)

697
Now, coming to bond strength that is this strength at the interface of the lifts, this could
be critical property and will determine whether or not the RCC construction which is
done in multiple lifts, behaves as a single unit, or behaves monolithically or not. And in
order to ensure good properties across that interface, we could carry out operations such
as is spreading some grout or mortar, before the next lift is cost. Or we could carry out
surface preparation exercises on the previous lift, before the fresh lift is caused, so as to
ensure that the previous lift and the next lift, the are properly bonded.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:37)

We did talk about density a little bit, and in certain cases this value could be the part of
the specifications of the RCC, it can be measured is to using a suitable device, and using
a mock up trail the minimum passes of a roller may be determined. So, in a mock up that
precedes actual construction, we may determine or estimate that in order to get a certain
density of the concrete, what is the number of passes that are required.

So, if we plot the number of passes to the density of the concrete that we obtain, it
slightly that we will get a relationship which is something like this. That beyond the
certain point having more and more passes is relatively in effective that it is not
contributing in to the change, in the density. But, in this regime having more passes is
indeed effective as far as achieving higher density is concerned.

And that is the kind of test that we need to carry out in order to determine what should be
the minimum number of passes as for as the roller is concerned given, a set of

698
equipment, and a type of concrete and so on. Effort should also be made to relate the
density measure to that, actually obtained using course and finally, to the compressive
strength of the concrete. If we are able to carry out this exercise, then we have a actually
close the loop, as far as quality control in RCC or roller compacted concrete is
concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:13)

Now, this here is the measurement of density of RCC or the in situ measurement of
density using a gamma density of meter.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:26)

699
Coming to a close of our discussion today, let us take back some questions, make a list of
projects where roller compacted concrete has been used in dam construction. We could
make a similar list of project where this concrete has been used in pavements, and
obtained details of a vibratory roller. And study the effect of the choice of this roller on
the properties of concrete, there are several other things which we have alluded to an our
discussion today; and they can also help us better understand roller compacted concrete.

Thank you.

700
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 21
Self-compacting concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

Welcome back to this lecture on Concrete Engineering and Technology. In this module
of lectures, we have been talking about subjects ranging from fundamentals of concrete,
to proportioning concrete mixes, stages in concrete construction, special concretes;
mechanisms of deterioration and concrete structures, reinforcement and maintenance of
the structures.

701
(Refer Slide Time: 00:38)

And we will continue our discussion today toward the special concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:46)

And we have talked about it before as to what, makes a concrete special or a concrete
operation special.

702
(Refer Slide Time: 00:55)

And that could arise from any one or more of the following conditions, use of special
materials, special environmental conditions, special properties, special methods of
placing or the conditions in which the concrete is placed. So, under any of these
conditions the concrete becomes special, and we need to be careful when we are dealing
with any of the operations involved whether it is mixing or it is material selection or it is
transportation and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:33)

703
Now having said that we continue our discussion with properties, and in the last above
30 years high performance concrete, and performance is related to properties, depending
on the property that we choose to have, we could have a high performance concrete. And
in the last 30 years, we have talked of high performance concrete primarily in two
concretes, it is easy to guess. One is compressive strength that is we have talked of high
performance concrete in terms of high strength concrete, because the strength or
compressive strength to be more precise is the fundamental property of concrete.

Having said that workability and compactability is another very important property of
concrete, fresh concrete in fact, where we can talk in terms of high performance
concrete; there is the concrete should be so workable, that it becomes self-compactable.
So, in this discussion today we will be primarily talking in terms of high workability
concretes, and let me go back and trace a little bit about the history of self-compacting
concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:45)

That is one of those concretes which is very highly workable, and now what is a highly
workable concrete is something which we need to think about a little bit, and we will
probably answer the question couple of slides later. But, getting back to the history of the
self-compacting concrete, it was about 1983 that there was a major concern in Japan,
arising out of durability of concrete structures.

704
And the professionals there looking at different aspects felt, that one of the reasons for
concrete structures to be having the problem of prematurity relation, was the fact that
concrete could not be vibrated properly, that it was not compacted properly. It showed
signs of some kind of segregation or the other, and with that kind of a backdrop professor
Okamura from the University of Tokyo, developed the basic concept of self-compacting
concrete with his colleagues.

It took about 2 years to develop the field experiments and implementation, and about
1989 there was an open experiment in the university, where professionals from different
construction companies and so on, they participated. And so what self-compacting
concrete was, this lead to a joint research project with the different construction
companies participating, and knowledge were shared, the concepts were understood
better. And it leads to a more spread application of self-compacting concrete, and is a
landmark as far as the concrete engineering is concerned.

In 1993, the concept of including self-compacting concrete or concretes with high

workability as part of the high performance concrete was clearly established. And then in
1994 and 97, we can see international symposia and workshops being held professional
bodies, recognizing the concept as an important landmark in the history of concrete
engineering.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:07)

705
So, as far as compressive strength is concerned, the issue relating to high strength
concrete, is being dealt with separately as far as this series of lectures is concerned. And
today, we will talk about high workability concretes which could be of any strength, so
basically we are separating the issue of strength from that of workability. High strength
concrete may or may not be highly workable and similarly, self-compacting concrete or
highly workability concrete need not be high strength.

So, having said that what is high workability concrete, it is difficult to define, because
there is no clear definition as to what high workability concrete is, but perhaps what we
could say, is that a concrete where the workability cannot be measured, in terms of let us
say the slump test. And we enter the domain of slump flow that is one of the tests that we
need to check for defining high workability concretes. Now, if we recall the height of the
slump cone is above 300 mm, it is difficult for the slump test to be used when the slump
exceeds, let us say 80 centimeters or above 180 or 200 mm.

So, high workability concretes are those concretes which have a slump higher than that,
let us say about 180 to 200 mm. And we need a separate set of tests to check the quality,
to differentiate one concrete from another, and use them at site as part of our regular
quality assurance programs; those tests are not what we are going to talk about today.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:13)

What we will talk about is the fundamentals, and going back to this picture here which
shows a slice of concrete, modeled as another picture here where the course and the fine

706
aggregates have been taken to the randomly distributed. And we have a lot of space filled
in with cement particles water and so on. If all this gets consolidated, we have a certain
volume of gravel which is coarse aggregate, a certain volume of sand, a certain volume
of cement, water and air in a concrete mix.

Now, this picture is what we have seen several times, and what we will do today is to
relook at this picture and try to revise and revisit some of the fundamental definitions, as
far as concrete engineering is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:01)

We know that paste is a combination of water and cement, mortar is a combination of

paste and fine aggregate that is water and cement with fine aggregate, and concrete is a
combination of mortar and coarse aggregate. Now, if we look at it in a different way,
concrete is a suspension of coarse aggregate in mortar, so it is a suspension of coarse
aggregate in mortar.

Similarly, mortar is a suspension of fine aggregate in paste, so we have a paste phase and
we have fine aggregate. So, when fine aggregate is suspended in paste, we have what is
called mortar, and going the other way around paste is a suspension of cement in water.
Now, all these three that is paste mortar and cement can therefore, now be modeled are
looked upon as a combination of a fluid, and a particle at phase.

707
(Refer Slide Time: 09:19)

As far as the paste is concerned, water is obviously the fluid, and cement or any other
similar material that is the particle at phase, as far as the paste is concerned; when it
comes to mortar, this paste serves as the fluid phase. And the sand serves as the particle
material, finally concrete the mortar that we have serves as the fluid phase, and the
coarse aggregate is the particle at. This understanding of concrete, in terms of relating it
to the fundamental properties of paste and then mortar is important, when we try to study
or understand the behavior of high workability concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:24)

708
Changes the characteristics of the latter, now the presence of cement particles and water,
changes the characteristics of the latter that is water, which we know is a fluid is a liquid.
The properties of water in terms of it is viscosity and so on, they change when cement
particles are added to it. When we are talking of addition of cement particles in water
today, we are not including in fact, we are trying to exclude the discussion of hydration.
We are looking at cement as purely some particles which are added to water, and if they
are added in a certain degree that is the amount of cement particles that are added, it is
not that you take a liter of water and just add a gram of cement and it becomes a paste,
no. We have to add a certain amount of powder, in order that the properties of water are
modified and it becomes and behaves like a paste.

We are not getting into the numbers today; I am leaving that out as an assignment, as to
what is the kind of numbers or what is the concentration, what is the amount of cement
that needs to be added. In order that the properties of water are modified to the level that,
it is looked upon as a paste, in fact the more powder we add the more paste like, or the
viscosity, the more paste like behavior we will have as far as the water is concerned.

So, we have to keep in mind today that addition of particles beyond a certain threshold
limit, lead to fundamental changes in the viscosity, or the rheology of the fluid phase.
And that is something that progressively happens when we are looking at concrete.

So, as far as the paste concerned the presence of cement particles, or in fact any other
particles which are similar in size, obviously you can imagine that is we add coarse
aggregate to water, we will hardly get paste. But, if we add fly ash in a certain amount;
we surely will get some kind of paste, whether it hydrates or it does not is a different
matter, so we are not talking of hydration, and strength development today.

Our concentration today is in terms of understanding the behavior of fresh concrete, and
workability of the fresh concrete. So, in that context let me reiterate that the presence of
particles in water, primarily cement, in the case of concrete engineering, changes the
characteristics of water, and this depends on the amount of powder and it is properties. If
we have one cement, we may get certain paste like properties at a certain concentration;
in another cement those properties would be achieved if the concentrations are higher, or
lower depending on what are the properties of cement that we talk about.

709
An example that comes to my mind is the fact that if you have done, the tests relating to
standard consistency of cement, you have a picture in mind that if we add say 30 percent
or 32 percent of water, what is that nature of the paste that we get, compare that with the
natural paste, if the water content is about 40 percent and so on. So, in this case we are
not talking in terms of water cement ratio, from the point find out view of strength
development, but we are talking about the powder concentration, in order to get paste
like behavior.

Now, this leads us to the idea that for a paste, we can talk in terms of a water powder
ratio from the point of view of concentration of cement particles in water, as modifying
the properties of water, and not really strength development. Extending this argument,
we can consider mortar as a fluid whose properties are modified by the presence of sand,
and the extend of modification depends on the properties and the volume of the sand that
is used.

So, in the same manner that if we continue to increase or decrease or whatever, the
cement particles in water the properties of the paste will keep changing. Similarly, if we
alter the concentration of sand or the amount of sand that is added to a paste, the
properties of the mortar will keep changing. And depending on the paste that we begin
with the situation could be quite different, for a given volume of sand that is added to the
mortar.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:46)

710
Now, if that is clear we can say that the extent of modification in the properties depends
upon the amount of sand that is been added to the paste. If we have a paste of a certain
rheology, and we add some sand there will be some changes, if we add more sand there
will be more changes and so on. In other words, the properties of the mortar are a
function of the properties of the paste, and the concentration of sand besides of course,
the properties of sand.

If the sand is fine, the extent of modification will be different compare to sand which is
coarse, and this fineness or coarseness of sand can be measured in terms of fineness
modulus. Now of course, our interest primarily is concrete and therefore, if we find in
look at concrete, at that level the properties of mortar are being modified by the presence
of coarse aggregates.

So, given a property, viscosity or any kind of logical behavior of a mortar that gets
modified, when we add coarse aggregate to it. And the extent of modification again
depends upon the properties of the coarse aggregate that is added, the amount of coarse
aggregate that is added. And of course, the final product depends on the initial properties
of the mortar itself.

In other words, what we can now say that the properties of the concrete are related to the
properties of the mortar, and the concentration of coarse aggregate and of course, the
properties of the coarse aggregate themselves. Now, what are the properties of coarse
aggregate that could be important, they could be size, shape, gradation, density and so
on.

711
(Refer Slide Time: 17:57)

Now, once we are talking about flowing or high workability concretes, then we could be
talking of a concrete which would flow normally that is, if we want to just pour concrete
in a large unreinforced section. Or at times we have concrete flowing in closed spaced
for example, in pipes when the concretes are being pumped, or when the concrete even
moves through reinforcement, in reinforced concrete construction.

In either case, it is important that we are careful about two properties, one disaggregation
and the other is aggregate interlock. Both these issues are of major importance, when we
are dealing with high workability concretes.

712
(Refer Slide Time: 18:46)

Now, let us take a look at the concrete flowing pipes for example, we obviously we will
have some friction at the interfaces that is at the surface of the pipe. And depending on
this friction and other factors, the velocity profile could be this or it could be something
closer to this that is, that not so much change, across the cross section of the pile as far as
the velocity is concerned. And of course, the velocity is also related to the flow rate of
concrete though the pipe and this is related to the energy that we are importing to the
concrete at the pump.

So, properties of the profile are related to the deformability, and their properties of the
fluid and the liquid phase. We have reason about theoretical background developed as far
as fluid mechanics is concerned, where all these issues in terms of fluid flow in pipes,
under pressure and so on, that is very well understood. As far as concrete is concerned
that raises certain problems for concrete engineers, and for construction sites.

And that is something which we must also keep in mind when we are talking in terms of
highly workable concretes, or flowing concretes, or concretes that are being pumped
through pipes and it is been placed at different locations.

713
(Refer Slide Time: 20:18)

Now, this business of friction, on the interface results in deposition of some material
which is primarily mortar on the surface. Now, how does this deposition affect us, this
deposit indeed must be cleaned at the end of a concreting operation, for the simple
reason that, the deposit can reduce the cross section area. Because, initially the deposit is
fresh, but as more hydration takes place it hardens, and the kind of cross section is
available for concrete flow reduces, if this deposit is not removed.

Also in case of RMC equipment that is the ready mix concrete equipment being used for
different mixes, this deposit will tend to contaminate subsequent mixes; if the equipment
is not clean at the end of each operation involving a certain kind of concrete. In fact, the
properties of first batch may be slightly different from those of subsequent batches,
because only the first batch, we will have this kind of a deposit problem more than the
other batches.

So, in fact, in certain constructions where we are extremely concerned about the quality
of concrete be used, we have to make sure that all the equipment that is used is properly
primed or coated, with the kind of concrete that is going to be actually used. So, we need
to run a batch of grout or mortar or may be even concrete, and throughout a way without
actually using it. Only to ensure that all the equipment that is used, is having a coating of
a kind of concrete that is going to be used in that construction.

714
(Refer Slide Time: 22:15)

Now, coming to segregation, this slide here shows the segregations of coarse aggregates,
that is the coarse aggregates have separated from the concrete, and primarily it is the
mortar which is flowing ahead. Segregation basically means settlement of heavier
particles from the fluid phase, and that can happen as far as concrete is concerned when
coarse aggregate settles out to mortar, as I shown here. Or sand settling out of paste in
the case of mortar, and perhaps even cements settling out of water as far as paste is
concerned.

And in fact to that extent bleeding is indeed a measure or a form of segregation in

concrete. Now, we must remember when we are talking of concrete that all constituents,
that is cement sand and coarse aggregate are heavier than water, and which is the only
liquid in the system. So, have to make sure that the liquid phase that is the paste and the
mortar has right kind of properties to ensure that segregation does not happen, that is the
coarse aggregates are actually carried along with the mortar. When the concrete is
moved, either under pressure through pipes, or it flows on its own under gravity and so
on, if it is moving in an unrestricted manner.

715
(Refer Slide Time: 23:57)

Now, depending on the properties of the fluid medium, only a certain volume fraction of
the particulate material can be carried. Now, this is the qualitative argument, which
basically says that for a given fluid medium, a given mortar in our case. If we pack more
coarse aggregate in that, then it can carry the possibility of segregation increases.
Whereas, if the amount of coarse aggregate is very small is relatively easier for the
mortar to carry that amount of aggregate.

Looking at the whole thing from another point of view, we need to maximize the amount
of coarse aggregate in our concrete, because that is the cheapest material. If that
argument is coupled with the kind of argument which is put forward here, we really see
that for a given type of mortar. Or a mortar with the given rheological properties, we can
only pack in a certain amount of, maximum amount of coarse aggregate in that mortar,
without running the risk of segregation.

The segregation definitely will happen, if the coarse aggregate content is higher than a
number, it may not it will surely not happen if the amount of coarse aggregate is less
than a certain number. And in between there will be a zone where the segregation may
happen or may not happen, so if we look at the chances of segregation happening, and
this is the chance or this is the level at which definitely will happen. And we plot the
volume of coarse aggregate here, beyond a certain point the chance of segregation
happening a very high, and below a certain level here they are more or less negligible.

716
And in this case here, well there is a possibility there is segregation may happen or may
not happen depending on all kinds of factors. So, it is important for concrete engineers to
appreciate that there is only this amount of coarse aggregate that we can pack in to a
mortar. Now, this amount here is related to the properties of the mortar as far as concrete
is concerned, and this amount will depend on the properties of the paste as far as a
mortar is concerned.

This volume fraction is also related to the properties of the particulate matter that is,
what is the kind of size, gradation, density, shape and so on, of the particles. So, if we
have one set of aggregates, the volume could be 44 percent, and for another set of
aggregates it could be 40 percent or 49 percent or whatever that number is.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:11)

The second matter of concern that was mentioned earlier was aggregate interlock, when
concrete flows the way it is shown here in a pipe, there are chances that this kind of an
interlock or arching is observed at times. Now, this formation of an arch, makes it
difficult for concrete to actually negotiate through the aggregates. And we do not get
concrete flow here, or at best we may get some kind of mortar flowing through the voids
in the aggregate system, so we cannot afford to have aggregate interlock.

And this interlock or the susceptibility of a concrete to have aggregate interlock, is

related to the ratio of the size of the opening through which the concrete flows. So, if the
susceptibility for interlock depends on the ratio of the size of the opening through, which

717
the concrete flows to the size of the coarse aggregate. So, if this diameter here of the pipe
is very much larger compare to the size of these particles here, the chances of aggregate
interlock happening are very, very small.

Whereas, if this diameter d is much smaller or is small, and we are trying to push through
aggregates or concrete having aggregates which are larger, then the chances of some
kind of an aggregate interlock occurring preventing the kind of concrete to flow through
is very high. So, now the chances for aggregate interlock or the susceptibility to
aggregate interlock is also related to the maximum size, shape and the volume fraction of
the aggregates.

So, if the volume fraction of aggregates is small, then again the chances of aggregate
interlock are small whereas, if we keep having more and more aggregates in the system,
for a given shape size and so on. If simply the volume of fraction is increased, the
chances of the interlock keeping increasing, now that is something again which a person
who is trying to proportion a concrete mix of this kind of consistency, of flowability
must be aware of.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:41)

Now, if we summarize or we look at the properties of concrete in totality, we can say that
the properties of concrete in this perspective, it can be said that in order to get a certain
property as far as concrete is concerned. We need to ensure that mortar has a certain
property, we need to ensure that the aggregate has a certain property that is in terms of it

718
is gradation, density, particle size, and so on. And the concentration of aggregates is
below the threshold concentration that we talked about.

In other words for a given nature of aggregates, we can have a critical maximum volume
beyond which using a normal mortar is not sustainable, this maximum level can be called
a carrying capacity of the fluid phase or the mortar.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:44)

Now, let us talk a little bit about the constituents and the paste, cement is of course, the
fundamental ingredient, because cement paste in the context of concrete engineering
definitely has cement. But, it can have other particles as well, other materials can also be
added to the powder volume, and concentration of course, out of these material such as,
flyash, blast furnace flag and so on.

They also contribute to the strength development, and hydration of the cement and the
cement products, and also contributed to the strength development, hydration products
being formed and so on, whereas those such as stone dust contribute only to the powder
volume, but play an important role when it comes to modifying the properties of the
paste. Simply increasing the cement content to increase the powder volume has obvious
undesirable effects, primarily on account of economy, and the fact that cement has an
associated heat of hydration.

719
And we would not like to use more cement then is absolutely required, but if we require
a higher powder volume, then we need to turn to material such as flyash or stone dust
and so on. Increasing the powder content in the paste increases, it is carrying capacity or
the holding capacity that we defined just now, and also has the effect of increasing the
mortar content in the concrete mix. So, even though we are talking about paste here, but
if we use materials such as flyash or stone dust, it contributes to the paste volume; but
nonce we increase the paste volume, we also increase the mortar volume in the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:52)

Let another root apart from increasing the powder content which is available for
modification of paste properties, is the use of chemical admixture, which could be
superplasticizers or viscosity modifying agents. Of these superplasticizers help us
increase the cement and or powder content at given water content, without compromising
on the workability of the mix that is the whole principle of superplasticizers or a
plasticizer.

That we can have more powder at the same level of workability, our fundamental
understanding in this course so far, and that is what is going to be practiced in even other
discussions, other than the discussion that we are having today is that in order to increase
the workability, we need to increase water. In this case here, we are saying that it is not
necessary to increase water, we can do that with also using plasticizers.

720
Viscosity modifiers or the other set of chemical admixtures can be used to engineer the
viscosity of the paste. That is through their use the water content in a mix can be
increased, without increasing the susceptibility to segregate, by increasing the viscosity
of the paste.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:11)

Now, when we are talking of the self compactability of such concretes, we have to
understand that we would like to increase the deformability of the paste. The paste
should be such that, can be deformed to more easily, now in order to deform the paste we
need to use more water, we some how need to increase the water powder ratio. A paste
which has a higher water powder ratio is easier to deform, which means that we need to
use superplasticizers for such pastes.

But, at the same time we also need adequate viscosity, and for that we need to decrease
the water powder ratio, and in order to get this thing, we need to use viscosity agents or
what we called, viscosity modifiers in the last slide. Now, it is a trade-off between these
two, what is the kind of water powder ratio to be used, and what combination of
plasticizers and the viscosity agents is used, in order that the paste phase here has the
right kind of rheological properties, to be able to support a given system of coarse
aggregates or of sand.

Depending on what you are talking about, if you are talking about mortar then we are
talking off paste and sand together, if you are talking of concrete then this here is really

721
the mortar and this is the coarse aggregate. So, the principle remains the same that is on
the one hand, we are talking of the need to increase the water powder ratio have more
water basically in the system, in order that the fluid phase becomes more deformable.
And on the other hand, we are talking of the need to decrease amount of water in the
system, increase the powder content in the system, to have adequate viscosity, and
segregation resistance.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:15)

With this picture here is a representation of more or less, the same thing that we saw
previously, we talk in terms of high deformability getting it through plasticizers. Then
we talk of high segregation resistance, we get it through the reduced water powder ratio,
and we have a limited aggregate volume. So, we try to limit the volume of coarse
aggregates in the system and finally, we land up with the property of self compactability,
or it could be basically very high flowability concretes.

Very high flowability concretes need not be self-compacting for example, very often we
have concretes which are highly flowable, and all those governing high flow ability
concretes will apply. Accept for the fact that, we would still need some amount of
external energy or vibration in order to make sure that the concrete is properly
compacted.

722
(Refer Slide Time: 37:19)

Now, as far as self-compacting concrete as we have discussed, it is a balance between the

fluidity and the resistance to segregation, and these two are essentially conflicting
properties, and a stable equilibrium between these two needs to be established.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:35)

Now, let us look at the tendency of blocking in concrete especially near the bars, now if
we consider this thought experiment or natural experiment. We can actually carry out
this experiment and collect the data, or even just think about how this experiment would
work. If we fill mortar in this cylinder, and we push a plate which has this kind of a

723
configuration which has holes here, and this plate is pushed into this mortar what do we
expect will happen.

If this material here was purely water, then as the piston is inserted, the water will simply
flow out of these holes, however if this material here is not water, and is actually mortar
which has cement paste and sand. Then we can draw pictures such as these, where we
say, if we keep changing the volume of given sand in the mortar, then what is the
possibility that the flow of mortar through these holes will be blocked.

We we will find that, if the sand volume for example, is greater than 44 percent as seen
here, the chances of blocking are almost one whereas, if it is less than this number, let us
say 42. The chances are that we can still push the piston, and this plate through the
mortar with the mortar continues to flow out. Another thing which is important to
understand as far as this kind of an experiment is concerned is the relationship between
the diameter of the hole, through which we are forcing the mortar to flow and the
diameter or the particle size of the sand.

So, if we plot that or if we keep that in mind, then we try to find out what is the critical
volume of sand which is required, or which can be supported without blocking. Then we
find that depending on the ratio of the holes diameter to the average size of sand, the
behavior is something like this; that is no matter what this ratio is if the critical volume
or the volume of sand exceeds 40 to 45 percent the flow is still blocked. This kind of a
discussion really sets the rules, for talking in terms of high flowability concretes or self-
compacting concretes and so on.

Concretes are special, in this context concretes become special when we start to talk in
terms of these kinds of things that is what is the kind of flow pattern. What is the kind of
flow that expect the concrete, what is the kind of relationship between the maximum
particles size, that is the maximum size of the coarse aggregate that we have, in relation
to the kind of properties in the mortar. As far as the viscosity and deformability is
concerned, how does that impact the flow of concrete to pipes and so on.

So, if we read the text here, we say that coarse aggregate in concrete simulated by larger
cement particles, we could easily extend this discussion, or this kind of an experimental
concrete except that we will need or much larger set up. Because, in that case when we

724
talk of the ratio of the hole diameter to be particle size, we could be talking of a single
hole being at least say 80 mm or 100 mm and so on.

Assuming that we are going to be using say 20 mm kind of particles, also shown here are
results from mortar tests carried out by varying, the sand content, the hole diameter and it
can be noted that there is a sudden tendency for blocking to occur. So, whether it is this
picture here or it is this value here, the blocking is some how a very sudden behavior, or
it is happens very abruptly; so it is not that gradually it will happen, but it happens very
abruptly. So, at a certain percentage of the particulate matter or concentration of
particulate matter beyond that, suddenly we find that the material does not move.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:24)

Now, once it comes to proportioning of concrete mixes, as far as our traditional system is
concerned, we are talked in terms of unit water content and a slump, and we said that the
relationship is more or less linear. And we had said that we can talk in terms of a water
cement ratio and a strength relationship, where the strength and a water cement ratio are
inversely related. And couple with this what we had said was for a given slump, we first
determine the water content, so the first thing that gets determined is the water content,
the second thing that it gets determined based on this water cement ratio.

And the strength that we have knowing the water content is the cement content, and the
third thing that we get using the s by a is this sand content in the mix and finally, we get
the coarse aggregate content. So, this was our fundamental flow of thought process,

725
when we are talking in terms of the proportioning of normal concrete mixes. Of course,
to begin with we had to know what the amount of air is in fresh concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:38)

So, now once we look at the self-compacting concrete kind of mix proportioning, we
find that the steps are quite different, and one of the strategy is that has been put forward
is to decide what is the air content that is going to be used. And then come to the volume
of coarse aggregate remember that, the volume of coarse aggregate in the normal mixes
was determined last. But, in this case we are trying to get that thing at the first instance,
because that is the amount of maximum amount of aggregate that can be supported by
the mortar.

So, what is the kind of volume of coarse aggregate that can be supported from there by
the same argument, we and then determine the volume of fine aggregate that the paste
can support. We determine the water to powder volume ratio, and then we determine the
dosage of plasticizers and chemical admixtures. So, the thought process here is quite
different from that followed in proportioning normal concrete mixes, where the waters
determine first, then the cement, then the sand, then the coarse aggregate.

In this case, it is the coarse aggregate, fine aggregate, water to powder volume and
finally, the chemical admixtures. In order to ensure that the paste and then the mortar
have the right kind of rheological properties to ensure that, the concrete can be high
flowing without segregating.

726
(Refer Slide Time: 45:20)

Now, if you look at how a cubic meter or a 1000 liters of concrete is made up, as far as
conventional air entrained concrete and self-compacting concrete is concerned. We find
that the amount of coarse aggregate is lesser here, the sand is higher, and the powder
content is higher but not so much the water content. So, the viscosity in the paste phase
or the mortar phase is imparted by the increased powder content, and use of appropriate
mixtures. And by reducing the amount of coarse aggregate in the system, we have
reduced the chances of aggregate interlock, and made it easier for the concrete to be
transported without segregation.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:10)

727
Now, in the case of self-compacting concrete, this aggregate content which ranges from
say 28 percent or 30 percent, 30 percent or 33 percent or may be 35 percent, this really
determines or this is determined from the kind of construction that we are using the
concrete for. If the concrete is being placed in open spaces without obstructions, we can
use more coarse aggregate, whereas if we want the concrete to be moving through or
negotiating complicated passages, then the amount of fabricate that can be supported is
smaller.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:52)

So, in our discussion today, what we have done is established the ground rules for a self-
compacting concrete, or a very high flowability concrete which is moved around more
like a fluid. What we have done is, talk in terms of the modification of the fluid
properties, on account of the presence of particulate matter; and talked in terms of a
critical volume of the particulate matter that a given fluid can sustain without
segregation. Now, having done that, we will see the measurement of the workability of
concrete such as the self-compacting concrete, in the subsequent discussion.

728
(Refer Slide Time: 47:46)

But, let us close our discussion with some questions, we could prepare a list of
references, which discuss the movement of fresh concrete in terms of a fluid, where
concrete is looked upon more as a fluid. We could study basically rheology of fresh
concrete, we could study practices in ready mix concrete plants, for maintenance of
equipment pipes and pumps etcetera. As to how they tackle the problem of deposition of
mortar and concrete in the surface, or on the surface of concrete near the bends and so
on.

And we could study about viscosity modifiers, and their use in concrete, what is their
nature as far as the chemistry is concerned, and the mechanism of their action as far as
hydration products, and so on is concerned. And we could make a list of applications of
high workability concretes, including the self-consolidating or self-compacting
concretes, and study their mix proportion, from the point of view of the maximum coarse
aggregate size used; the contribution or the volumetric proportion of the coarse
aggregates sand, and so on.

I must acknowledge, the help and the interesting discussions that I had with my friend ((
)), and some part of this discussion here in in today’s presentation, has been taken from
his PhD thesis which is submitted, at the University of Delft.

Thank you.

729
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 22
Testing self-compacting concrete

(( )) and welcome to this lecture in our series of concrete engineering and technology.
Continuing our discussion on special concretes, where we were talking about high
workability concretes in the last class, we had developed the following ideas.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:35)

Concrete mortar and paste all can be modeled as a composite having a fluid phase with
particles suspended in them, paste can be modeled as cement particles suspended in
water, mortar can be modeled as sand particles suspended in paste, and concrete can be
modeled as coarse aggregate suspended in mortar.

The properties of the composite whether it is paste or it is mortar, or it is concrete can be

determined by the properties of these two phases. That is in the case of concrete for
example, it will be the properties of the aggregate and the mortar, and also the volume
concentration of the particles, that is if you are talking of concrete how much coarse
aggregate is there in the composite by volume.

730
We are also talked about the problems of segregation, and particle interlock in the
context of the carrying capacity of the fluid, the conditions of flow and so on. We had
talked about the properties of the fluid phase, which can be modified by changing the
concentration of particles there in, and super-plasticizers help us directly in that context
and also using viscosity modifiers.

We had also built an argument for having a reduced volume of coarse aggregates in high
flowability concretes. In fact, there was a slide if you would remember where we had
said that depending on the concentration of reinforcement, or the complexity of the shape
in which the concrete has to be cast, the maximum volume of coarse aggregate in the
concrete can be limited, or needs to be limited.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:34)

Continuing with that discussion and reiterating that paste is water and cement, mortar is
paste and fine aggregate, concrete being mortar and coarse aggregate, and the
suspensions as we have discussed.

731
(Refer Slide Time: 02:42)

We now, talk about self-compactability of concrete where we said that on the one hand
we need increased deformability of the paste, which calls for an increase in the water to
powder ratio, and the use of super-plasticizers. And in the other hand we require
adequate viscosity and for that we need to reduce the water powder ratio, and we use
viscosity agents. So, these two are the chemical admixture root or this is the physical root
where we are trying to change water powder concentration in the system.

Now, as far as the self-compactability of concrete is concerned or a high flowability of

concrete is concerned; we are really looking at a trade-off between these two opposing
properties: One of them requires the paste phase or the liquid phase to be more
deformable whereas, the other requires the same phase to be less deformable which
basically a trade-off.

732
(Refer Slide Time: 03:45)

Building on that argument we had discussed this slide, which talks about the possibility
of blocking, and the critical volume of sand required for blocking if we were doing an
experiment as shown here; where in an small cylinder we are trying to push a piston
which has a configuration like this having holes of different diameters, and these
diameters are related to the particles size that we have, and we had talked about a sudden
change that is occurring here under relatively sudden change which is occurring at round
this value here.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:32)

733
We had also talked about the history of the self-compacting concrete briefly, and starting
from about 1983 84 to about 1997 was an extensive mortar work done in Japan, and in
other countries. Notably, the Netherlands where the emphasis was on developing high
deformability, high flowability and self-compacting concretes, on the other hand there
was a discussion in groups in the world working on high performance concrete interpret
it slightly differently, they were working more in terms of increasing the strength of
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:33)

Now, coming to a discussion today we will focus on self-compacted concrete that is

SCC, and that is one of the examples of high flowability concretes. So, in this case in
addition to high flowability the concrete should have self compactability, that is it should
not require external vibration in order to be compacted. So, we will cover basically the
constituents and the test methods of this special concrete.

734
(Refer Slide Time: 05:38)

(Refer Slide Time: 06:05)

As far as what SCC is it really is a flowing concrete mix, that does not require additional
or external work for consolidation, in terms of internal or form vibrators, and
consolidates under its own weight. So, as we can see from the picture here on the right,
the concrete more or less flows as it fit for a fluid. Now, the advantage is of working
with this kind of concrete that self-compacting concrete is that, its highly fluid nature
makes it eminently suitable for placing in difficult conditions which could be sections
with congested reinforcement, hazardous environment, and so on.

735
So, at times reinforcement arrangement or the arrangement of reinforcement is such that,
it makes it very very difficult of concrete to be placed, or a concrete to move through the
reinforcing bars. And if and even if concrete can negotiate that gap it is almost
impossible to actually have a vibrator reach that area similarly, there could be hazardous
environments where we would like to limit, the amount of exposure to people to human
beings; we would like to have as few people working in that area as possible, and in
these cases the use of self-compacting concrete comes in very handy.

As we said that, it can flow through type sections comfortably as opposed to normal
concrete of course, provided the mixes designed appropriately that has a right amount of
segregation resistance; It minimizes hearing related damage induced by the vibration of
concrete at the work site. The use of vibrators whether it is internal vibrators, or form
vibrators is one of the major sources of sound pollution at a construction site, and if you
are able to get rid of that we have a much more silent construction site. Indeed the time
required to place concrete in large sections is also greatly reduced, because the concrete
virtually flows rapidly into the form that is being casting.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:54)

Here are examples, where self-compacting concrete would be eminently suitable. For
example, if we look at this picture here, we can see that the reinforcement is so dense,
that it would be impossible for concrete to penetrate these small patches between the
reinforcing bars save the self-compacting, or a very very highly deformable concrete.

736
Only that concrete which literally flows like water can be poured into the formwork, and
it can be expected that it will flow through these openings or gaps, and set in a manner
that reinforce concrete designer would like it to you. On the picture here is the anchorage
of the 4 A of the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge, one of the major bridges in Japan, and I would
like you to understand or study a little bit more on how the self-compacting concrete was
used in this large anchorage.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:05)

As far as the ingredients of self-compacting concrete are concerned, they are no different
from the usual Cement, other Cementitious materials - Fly Ash, Glass furnace slag,
Microsilica, stone dust, Aggregates which is fine and coarse, and Admixtures which
could be Super-plasticizers or Viscosity Modifiers.

Now, we use a land up using a lot of these cementitious materials in self-compacting

concretes for the simple reason, that we need to have higher volume of paste higher
powder content in the mix, this is something which we talked about last time and we will
look at it once again today.

737
(Refer Slide Time: 09:54)

As far as cement is concerned we can obviously use almost any type of cement, the
typical cement content is no different from normal concrete; it is about 350 to 450 kg a
cubic meter, and higher cement content obviously if we use we will land up with higher
shrinkage and thermal stress issues and therefore, even though we require a higher paste
volume or a higher powder volume in the paste, it is not always advisable to use cement,
we would rather use materials of similar fineness, but not having the hydration related
issues in terms of heat and so on. And as we have stated lesser cement content is possible
by the use of the supplementary cementitious materials.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:44)

738
As far as these materials are concerned we could use fly ash, the blast furnace slag or
microsilica, preferably fly ash because of its spherical nature they use improves a
workability and cohesiveness, reduces bleeding and segregation, improves durability and
overall performance of the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:04)

As far as the viscosity modifying admixtures are concerned these are of various chemical
nature, and provide or correct desired rheological profile to the self-compacting concrete,
they improved the segregation resistance of the mix without loss of workability, they
also help to reduce performance fluctuations due to variations the material quality. And
the moisture in the aggregates this helps us maintain a consistent quality as far as self-
compacting concretes are concerned.

739
(Refer Slide Time: 11:43)

Coming to aggregates; all sound aggregates meeting normal requirements are suitable.
We must remember that with the material like, concrete it is very difficult to specify very
special kinds of aggregates, whether it is fines aggregates or coarse aggregates, because
concrete as a construction material is economical only, if we use locally available
material to the extent possible. The only factory made product used is cement and that is
where we have some specification, that this cement and not that cement, this particular
chemical composition and not that particular chemical composition and so on.

But if we become very choosy with respect to aggregates, that will push the cost of
concrete beyond a certain point, and that will make concrete and uneconomical
proposition. So, as far as possible, no matter how special the concrete becomes, the
engineer always tries to use local material. And to that extent all sound aggregates meet
in normal requirements are suitable for use in self-compacting concretes, as well. These
aggregates could be natural or crushed aggregates of any mineral composition -
limestone, dolomite, quartz, basalt, whatever. Except that the usual rules as far as alkali
aggregate reaction will apply, we do not want to use reactive aggregates.

As far as maximum size of the aggregate is concerned that is normally limited to about
20 m m. And aggregate shape should be round or cubical. Now, this is something which
we need to be little careful, as far as which is used in self-compacting concrete is
concerned, because elongated aggregates do not produce satisfactory mixes due to an

740
increased internal friction, and their tendency for aggregate interlock. And that is
something which we would like to really watch out against, when we are talking in terms
of self-compacting concerned concretes.

In normal concretes, because we use vibrators we have the possibility, or a chance to

break aggregate interlocks with the vibrators, but in self-compacting concrete we cannot
afford that similarly, we cannot afford aggregate interlock in equipment, or in piping and
so on. So, we must ensure that as far as aggregates are concerned they are at least
rounded or cubical in nature.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:26)

Coming to super-plasticizers they are an essential component of self-compacting

concrete, because they help us reduce the water content and as far as these admixtures
are concerned, normal sulphonated melamine formaldehyde, naphthalene formaldehyde
condensate and polycarboxylic ether base super-plasticizers are commonly used.
Depending on the chemical composition of the cement, there may be issues related to
compactability of a particular admixture with the cement, and so on. And that is
something which needs to be established from time to time as far as a construction site is
concerned. As far as these admixtures are concerned water reduction achieved should be
about 25 percent or more so, that total content of water is restricted to about 160 to 180
liters per cubic meter, anything more than that would make the demand on the powder
content simply to hide.

741
(Refer Slide Time: 15:34)

Now, the mechanism of self-compaction is in self-consolidating concrete is based on the

large quantity of fines of the order of about 500 to 650 kgs a cubic meter, the use of high
range water reducing super-plasticizers, and the range of more than 25 percent of water
reduction and viscosity modifying admixtures.

So, it is these three principle factors or a combination of these factors which helps us
obtain self-compactability in concrete. So, when we are talking of a large amount of
fines we can imagine that if you are looking at 500 to 650 kgs per cubic meter fines, this
is not including the fine aggregate, this is really the fines in the sense of cement and
particles which are of similar size.

So, we cannot obviously have this amount of cement sitting in a concrete matrix so, the
cement content has to be restricted to about 350 to say 450 and therefore, perforce or by
a requirement of self-compactability we need to have at least 200 and 250 kgs per cubic
meter, of either a supplement cementitious material which will participate in secondary
pozzolanic reaction, or secondary hydrations or a material which even if it does not
participate in that secondary hydration contributes to increase the viscosity of the paste
phase.

742
(Refer Slide Time: 17:16)

Now, coming to self-compacting concrete all material passing through 0.125 m m sieve
may be called fines, and that is how you are trying to define the fines material in the
previous slide, the total amount of fines required in a self-compacting concrete depends
upon its fineness the water content and so on. Pozzolanic materials will contribute to the
strength and their effect should also be considered on the mix design of course, we could
use inert as well as reactive aggregate sometimes in fines but, with caution.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:53)

743
Now, fly ash is one of the most commonly used supplementary cementitious materials,
and is a fine glass like powder recovered from flue gasses created in a coal-fired electric
power generation or a thermal power plant. As far as India is concerned we produce
millions of tons of fly ash but, it is usually dumped in landfills. Fly ash as such is an
inexpensive replacement for Portland cement to be used in concrete, while it actually
improves the strength, segregation, and also the ease of pumping the concrete. Of course,
it should be noted that not all fly ash can be used it is not only the size, and the reactivity,
and so on. But, also the fact that the properties would depend on the coal which is used
the fineness the burning temperature and so on.

So, if there is a lot of variation in the quality of coal being used in a thermal power plant,
the quality of fly ash is also likely to vary. And this variation is one of the reason why fly
ash has not really become an absolute replacement for cement; sometimes we get very
good fly ash and sometimes we do not get such good quality fly ash, and that is why as
far as specifications are concerned , as far as engineers are concerned, we cannot make a
blanket statement that we can use large volumes of fly ash in a given concrete.

Of course, if an engineer is conscious of that does periodic quality control there is

absolutely no reason why fly ash cannot be used, it is an ideal material for self-
compacting concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:48)

744
Now, if we look at the typical mix proportions by weight of normal concrete and of self-
compacting concrete, this numbers here are those for a normal and these numbers are for
a self-compacting concrete. Now, if you look at these numbers these are the proportions
in mix one that is the normal concrete, and the self-compacting concrete, and we are able
to see the proportions by weight.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:20)

Now, if this data was converted to a volumetric chart which says that air, water, powder
or cement, sand and gravel. This here is the distribution as far as normal conventional air
entrained concrete is concerned, and picture below is that of a typical self-compacting
high performance concrete.

Now, if we look at the numbers in both cases we can assume that the air content is not
really different, it is the same 2 percent water is about the same as far as powder or
cement or fines is concerned, there is a mark difference that is 10 percent in about that is
about 10 percent in conventional concrete whereas, in self-compacting concrete it could
be as high is about 18 to 12 percent.

The sand is not really so much different, and this increase here is compensated by a
concerned decrease in the coarse aggregate percentage. So, in the end result self-
compacting concretes have a larger paste volume compare to conventional volumes, and
this is compensated or made up by the reduced volume of coarse aggregates, and that is
something which we are talked about last time.

745
(Refer Slide Time: 21:48)

And we had also seen this slide here which talks in terms of limiting, the coarse
aggregate content between 28 to 35 percent depending on the complexity of the
formwork, or complexity of the member in which self-compacting concrete is to be cast.
This ranking that is given here, rank one, two and three for the aggregate content is based
on tests for self-compactability , and the level of resistance at obstacles is varied for the
test in the three ranks. Now, comes to testing of self-compacting concrete, that is really
the second part of our discussion today; and now let us talk about how we actually test
self-compacting concretes, which is different in a manner compare to conventional
concretes.

Now conventional concretes we know, we test in terms of workability, and air content
may be sometimes carry out bleeding test, or setting time, and so on. and as far as
workability is concerned, we need to slump compaction factor and so on but, when it
comes to self-compacting concretes or high flowability concretes, the material is beyond
the classification range of a slump test, we need to have more specialized tests and that is
something we are going to talk about.

746
(Refer Slide Time: 23:16)

Some of the test that we will talk about today are the Slump flow, the V-Funnel, the L-
Box, the U-Box, Fill Box and the J-Ring. Now, these tests give us an entirely different
framework in which a self-compacting concrete can be evaluated; we must remember
that self-compacting concrete has been developed only about 25 30 years ago and
therefore, a lot of these tests are still in some form of development or the other.

Some of them have been standardized, and we can look up ASTM or European standards
on that, but some of these tests are still evolving, and would sooner or later become part
of a standard quality control regime, as far as quality assurance programs of self-
compacting concretes in concerned; it is not only self-compacting concretes, but these
tests can also be used to evaluate the workability of any other high flowability concrete.
Of course, air content and so on. can be tested in a manner which is similar to
conventional concrete. Now, let us take a look at these test one by one.

747
(Refer Slide Time: 24:44)

Coming to the slump flow; the test aims at investigating flowing ability of the self-
compacting concrete, and measures the spread the diameter of the slump being a measure
of that flowability, and indicates the free unrestricted deformability of the concrete,
recommended values of slump flow are in the range of 650 to 800 millimeters.

What we must remember is that the standard slump cone, measures a 100 millimeters on
the top, 200 millimeters here, and has a height of 300 millimeters. So when we are
talking of a slump flow of 650 to 800 millimeters;

(Refer Slide Time: 25:33)

748
What we are really talking about is that this diameter here, which is what the concretes
spreads into once the slump cone has been removed, this should be of the order of 650 to
800 millimeters or 600 to 850 millimeters. The original diameter here as when it was
contained in the slump cone is about 200 millimeters, so we are talking of a large spread
of the concrete, as the slump cone has been removed.

When we are evaluating the concrete using the slump flow, we should also watch for
aggregates having reached the edges, so it should not happen that the concentration of
aggregates in the periphery of the slump flow is spread is differential equation from the
aggregate concentration in the center, and that is what slightly to happen if the concrete
is segregation prone; if the concrete is segregation prone, the aggregate would not move
with the mortar towards the periphery.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:47)

As a corollary to the slump flow test, we also sometimes use a flow time which is
sometimes called the T 500 test; and now this T 500 refers to the time, it takes for a
concrete to achieve or reach a diameter of 500 millimeters, and the typical time could be
in the range of 2 to 5 seconds.

So as the slump cone measuring 200 millimeters and diameter is lifted, the concrete
spreads in all directions, and we look at the time that it takes for the concrete to reach a
diameter of 500 millimeters; and this time is called the T 500. Depending on the kind of
viscosity that we have, as far as the mortar is concerned, it is possible that for the same

749
slump flow which is the final diameter that the concrete really achieves the T 500 times
could be different. And obviously, the T 500 would be higher for a concrete which is
more viscous, and concrete being more viscous really means that the mortar phase has a
higher viscosity.

So, even though we are not measuring viscosity directly, parameters such as the T 500
help us to determine, and compare the viscosity of two concretes which have the same or
different slump flows or that final spreads. Now, if we look at the slump flow test once
again we would realize, what the import of the free unrestricted deformability is; the
concrete in the slump cone as it flows out is unencumbered; it flows out freely without
any encumbrance, without any obstacle, or obstruction to its flow. And that is not
something which we have as far as most reinforce concrete structures is concerned. In
most cases the concrete is expected to negotiate reinforcing bars, and that is something
which the slump flow itself does not measures. So most of our test beyond this point
have this parameter added into the testing regime.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:23)

Now, if we come to the V-funnel test. The test give us the time for a certain volume of
concrete to pass through a narrow opening; it gives an indication of the filling ability
provided that no blocking, and or segregation occurred, concrete samples would depend
upon the size of the V-funnel; it could be about 12 to 14 liters, and the time would vary
between 6 and 12 seconds.

750
So, if we have concrete filled in this funnel, which measures about say 500 millimeters
on the top has a width of about 75 millimeters here, and a height of 450 millimeters with
a constricted region here of about 150 millimeters. What we expect is that the concrete
filled in this portion here, there is a lid which when opened allows the concrete to flow
through this, and the time that it takes for the concrete to flow through is the V-funnel
time.

Now, once the concrete is flowing from a larger cross sectional to a smaller cross
sectional area here, the possibilities of aggregate interlock can be easily checked, and
that is something which the slump flow simply cannot do. The slump flow therefore, is
the measure of the unrestricted deformability whereas, test such as the V-funnel helps us
evaluate the concrete from the point of view of aggregate interlock and so on.

As far as the time is concerned when do we say that, all the concrete has actually passed
through the funnel; one of the methods that can be used as a basis or as a guide line can
be once the concrete moves through this funnel, if we are watching from the top, we
should be able to see the light at the end of the funnel. And this funnel has a diameter of
about or a square is about 185 or 80 m m, and that is something which would help us.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:39)

Now coming to the third test, that we need to talk about, and that is the L-box. Now this
test here means or has an L-box that is there is a box here which is let us say A, and
another portion here which is let us say B, and we fill the concrete in A, there is this gate

751
which is closed, and once we lift this gate the concrete from the block A flows into block
B.

Now this flow from block A to block B is restricted by the presence of these pipes, or
reinforcing bars, or any such arrangement, that we may choose to use. Some of the
standards have standardized, the kind of obstruction that can be used in the form of pipes
of different diameters, or in the form of reinforcing bars of different diameters, in a
manner that the space here is divided into different open spaces.

So the kind of obstruction, that we use here is somehow related or somewhat related to
the kind of reinforcement in an actual structure, which the concrete is expected to
negotiate. So of course, here also we have the possibility of an aggregate interlock
occurring behind the reinforcing bars, which would prevent the concrete from block A
flowing into block B. So the kind of measures that we need to take or the kind of
measure that would be used, as far as testing the L block is concerned it is largely the
difference in this height at these two places.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:15)

So, H 1 and H 2 and then there is this delta H, so if the concrete was to behave as a real
fluid, then we would not expect any difference in the height. Over this length that the
concrete is flowing, but since the concrete at the end of it is not really a fluid, there will
be a certain amount of difference in the height s at these two places, and that is the
difference that we want to monitor. And measure as the output from this test which is

752
called the L-box test, as I explained before that is this is what is driven in the text here
the method is useful to investigate the possibility of self-compacting concrete.

So, possibility being ability of the concrete to negotiate the simulated reinforcing bars,
and it measures the least height of fresh SCC after passing through the specified gaps of
steel bars, and flowing within a defined flow distance which were shown to be about 700
millimeters in the previous slide, and with this height reached the passing or blocking
behavior of the self-compacting concrete can be estimated. And two types of gate can be
used: one with three smooth bars, two smooth bars the gaps would be different
depending on the kind of diameters with the bars, that we use and so on. and we can have
standards which would help us evaluate a concrete from this point of view, that is from
the point of view of an L-box test which is using the ratio of the heights at the beginning
and end of flow.

So we have always stated in this discussion, in different lectures, as far as this module is
concerned test methods are always such that, they would yield a value any test method,
any test would yield a value, and a specification is something which the engineer has to
say or state that if we carry out this test for this application, this is the value which is
acceptable.

So, we can in this case for example have different tests, as far as self-compacting
concretes are concerned, and the engineer can lay down different specifications, as far as
L-box test is concerned, I want the concrete which has a ratio of the two heights to be let
us say 0.9, as far as the funnel test is concerned, I want a concrete which should not have
a time of flow greater than say 10 seconds; it should not have a slump flow less than 55
centimeters or 550 millimeters and so on. So this is the basic concept in terms of testing
of self-compacting concretes.

753
(Refer Slide Time: 36:31)

Continuing with the tests, let us look at the U-box test, as the name suggest talks about
the flow of concrete in a U shaped box. So concrete is filled on one end of a U box,
closed initially with the gate, and this gate has an obstacle which again has simulated
reinforcing bars, and once the gate is opened, the concrete flows from one end to the
other; and we can always talk in terms of this height or the difference in these two
heights, and again if the concrete was a fluid or a liquid in that sense, then we do not
expect any difference in the heights in the two sides of the U.

Again, if because concrete is not a true liquid in that sense, we will expect certain
amount of difference, and that difference would be the measure of the self -
compactability of the concrete. The smaller this difference between the two sides, the
more self-compactible the concrete can be stated to be, again this gate or this obstruction
that we design or use as far as this test is concerned can be modified, or chosen to be in a
manner that represents the kind of reinforcement that we use.

754
(Refer Slide Time: 38:07)

Coming to the Fill box test which is the, which is the slight variation of the test, that we
use earlier. This test here deuce with the concretes ability to fill a box, once the concrete
is placed in this end of the box, and these pipes here represent the actual reinforcing bars
or the reinforcement in a reinforced concrete structure.

So depending on the complexity of the reinforcement, that we are emphasizing in a

particular application, we can change the diameter, and the spacing of these bars, and
have the concrete fill this box. Normal concretes, as we can imagine will not be able to
more or less negotiate the gaps between the simulated reinforcement almost at all, it is
only after certain amount of self-compactability, or high level of deformability, that is
achieved will we get some semblance of a horizontal surface which is what we finally,
want in a truly self-compacting concrete.

755
(Refer Slide Time: 39:31)

Last of all in the series of test, that we are talking about, let us talk a little bit about the J-
ring. Now, the J-ring test aims at investigating both the filling ability, and the passing
ability. At the same time and indicates the restricted deformability due to blocking effect
of reinforcing bars, in a manner of speaking the J-Ring is a combination of the slump
flow kind of test with the added complication, that the concrete is required to flow
through this added cylindrical contraption, which has these reinforcing bars and gaps in
the bars.

So the concrete is placed in a usual manner in a slump cone with this contraption on the
outside, the cone is removed, and then concrete is allowed to flow through this
contraption. And as it flows through, it is not the free unrestricted flow, as we would
expect in the case of normal slump flow, but the concrete is flowing now through
obstacles. And the measure could be in terms of again the flow, that we achieve or the
difference in heights inside and outside this barrier and so on.

A variation of the T 500 time, that we talked about when we are talking about a corollary
to the slump flow is the T 500 j. The T 500 j is the time, that it takes for the concrete to
achieve a diameter of 500 millimeters when tested with the J-Ring. T 500 was the time
that it took for the concrete to reach a diameter of 500 without any restriction, or without
any obstacle to its deformation. So, this j here is the added suffix, and helps us find out
the viscosity of the concrete with the modified slump flow, that is using a J-Ring.

756
(Refer Slide Time: 41:51)

(Refer Slide Time: 42:08)

These pictures here show, another representation or view of the J-Ring test. There is
another test which we have not talked about, or we have not listed in this discussion, and
that is a test which involves having the concrete pass through a large U-Tube, where
there is a substantial amount of distance involved here, and we place the concrete here,
expect the concrete to flow all this distance, and rising this tube here.

So it is a variation of the U-Tube test, that we talked about except that concrete is just not
flowing from one leg of the U to the other, but it is passing through or reasonably long

757
distance. Now, as this concrete goes through this distance, we can always have
innovations which would create obstacles in the path of the flow, and still expect the
concrete to negotiate the barriers that we put in place.

This kind of a test, because of its size can also help us evaluate properties of concrete, at
this end of the flow that is the end where the concrete is being poured, and this and here
where the concrete is reaching at the end of the flow. So we can take coarse specimens at
the end of the whole thing, at the end of the hardening, and strength development, and so
on. and we can try to find out properties such as strength, may be even particles size
distribution of course aggregates, and so on. using this course, and to establish at the end
of it. Conclusively that yes, the concrete at this end and this end is really the same, and it
did not go through any segregation, and so on. while it was negotiating this whole path.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:08)

758
(Refer Slide Time: 44:26)

Now, before we close I would like to thank my erstwhile colleagues in kajima

corporation - especially friends like Mister Motohasahi, Sakata and Takada - for the
insight they helped me get into this fascination subject of high flowability self-
compacting concretes. Now before we close of course, as usual we will have a series of
items which we could look into a little bit more closely to get better understanding of
self-compacting concretes, we could make a list of case studies where self-compacting
concrete has been used.

We could study from that , from that list of project we could try to understand, how was
the self-compactability achieved in these cases, we have talked about different roots, we
have talked about increase in the powder content use of chemical admixtures, that is
super-plasticizers or the use of viscosity modifiers. So these are some of the roots that we
talked about in theory.

Now, once we look at the actual concrete mixes being used in different projects, where
self-compacting concrete was used; it would be possible for you to understand which of
the roots was taken to achieve self-compactability in these cases.

We have talked about some tests in our discussion today, to give you insight into the
different variations that have been proposed, and are been used in different standards, to
evaluate the self-compactability of concrete. There are several other test which we of

759
course, had not had the time to cover, and we could try to make a list of other tests, that
are been suggested in literature for the self-compactability of concrete.

Now, as a corollary to this question we could have a list of standards, which address the
test that we use today; the slump flow, the J-Ring, the U-Tube, and so on. There are
variations in even the slump flow test, and I would like you to examine some of the
standards which describe the slump flow test.

Learn more about these test as we have discussed, seeing is believing there are several
videos and movies available on the internet, which you could take a look, and see how
these test are actually carried out. Once you see these test being actually carried out, that
will give you much better understanding on what we are talking about the deformability,
how the concrete flows as far as the slump flow is concerned, how that high flowing
concretes are placed in more congested formworks, and so on. With this we come to an
end of the discussion today on self-compacting concretes.

Thank you.

760
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 23
Shotcrete and underwater concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:28)

761
And welcome back to another lecture in this series on concrete engineering and
technology. We will continue our discussion on special concretes. In the last few classes
we had covered high flowability and self-compacting concretes and we are talked about
how the properties of the paste space or the mortar space need to be engineered, in terms
of viscosity and so on. So, that the concrete has adequate flow ability as well as
segregation resistance.

Then we had examined some of the common test methods that can be used to evaluate
the properties of these special concretes, in terms of their flowability, passability, self
compactability and so on. These test were over and above the normal test that we use in
fact the rider was that in special concretes, we basically need special tests in order to
evaluate them and determine their suitability in terms of use and at the same time these
special test should be really a part of the quality control regime, that we make when we
are using these special concretes.

Now, one of the considerations in that discussion that we did not mention specifically
was sloshing. Now, this is the phenomenon, which occurs when fluids are being
transported in crux. Now, in the case of high flowability concretes, the concrete is more
or less a fluid and while its being transported in agitator crux. We have to be careful that
the concrete does not slosh, and if it is sloshes what are the implications of that? So, the
driver whose transporting these concretes in his crux needs to be aware that the concrete
is transporting or she is transporting is not really normal concrete and has a tendency to
slosh. Now, that really shows that once we has been using special concretes, there is a
need to not only do quality control and so on as far as the material is concerned, but also
adequately train the personal who handle these concretes.

762
(Refer Slide Time: 02:52)

Continuing from that discussion, I would like to also emphasize the need for validation
and verification of laboratory tests in the field, when we are talking of special concretes.
We may carry out certain test in the laboratory, but it is important that all those tests are
verified and the results seen to be matching in the field because there can be all kinds of
reasons. Why the mixing conditions, the batching conditions and so on may be different
in the field than those that were available or that were practiced in the lab?

So, there is a reason why we must ensure or insist that the properties of the concrete
achieved in the lab are duplicate or they are verified in the field test. We should
remember that cement is the only factory made product that we use as far as the
constituent of concrete is concerned. As a result of that, we can expect and indeed we get
a lot of variation in the properties of the ingredients. Therefore, the properties of the
concrete we had elude it to this when we are talking of high flow ability concretes, in
terms of the properties of the coarse aggregate their size the particle size distribution, the
surface characteristics and so on.

All that changes from lotto lot from quarry to quarry and therefore, we need to have
methods which are robust enough to take care of these variations. So, concrete even
though ready mix concrete even though it is a factor made product, it is susceptible to a
much larger variation than that we can expect from another factory made product. That is

763
something which we need to be very, very careful about when we are talking of special
concretes.

We have the issue of compatibility of materials especially in terms of cement and

chemical admixtures. The cement even though they are factory made its always likely it
is always possible that there may be a slight variation in the quality in terms of the
chemical composition and so on. So, from the normal test that were carried out which
were very, very super special in a manner of speaking those differences would not even
come out. In fact, in sites we hardly ever carry out a chemical analysis.

For example, of cement what we do is fineness initial setting time final setting time
strength development and so on. When we are talking special concretes and we are using
chemical admixtures, which have dependency or which can call changes in the properties
of concrete in minute doses. Then these tests need to be verified, we have to be very
careful to ensure that the mix that we use is robust the properties, that we get are within
an acceptable range.

Continuing with the discussion on variation mineral admixtures like fly ash or blast
furnace slag, could also vary in property. For example, fly ash the properties would vary
depending on the kind of coal that is used in the herbal flower plant. It would vary
depending on the temperature, that we furnace used to power the coal the method of
collection of the fly ash and so on and so forth. So, in a nut shell concrete is not a
material which can be easily duplicated that gives us a sense of uniqueness of each
concrete mix and that uniqueness is something, which we must understand. No matter
how much experience we get, we must always ensure and insist that the properties that
we obtain in the lab are replicated at site using the site conditions.

764
(Refer Slide Time: 07:12)

Now, this was general discussion a few general remarks on handling of special concretes
and continuing our discussion as far as special concrete is concerned. We will
concentrate a focus on two aspects today; one is concreting under water. Very often we
need to place concrete under water it just not possible to remove all the water and then
try to create a dry environment for concrete. We sometimes need to place concrete under
water or in water and there we need a special considerations. We have to be especially
careful and that is what we will talk about today. We will talk about concrete this is
another special method of concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:03)

765
(Refer Slide Time: 08:06)

So, under water concreting and shotcrete is what is the topic of today continuing with our
discussion under water concreting there are certain key words that we need to keep in
mind one is still versus running water. So one situation can be when a concrete is being
placed in still water; that is the water is not running there is no movement in the water
and concrete is being placed there. So, all that concrete has to do really is to displace the
water and be there. Whereas, in running water the concrete can be swapped away, it can
segregate a lot more easily.

Of course, even in still water the tendency to segregate will still be there, but in running
water it becomes even more, which means that when we are talking of concreting under
water or placing concrete under water one has to understand the implications of still
versus running water and lay down a specification. That if the speed of water the velocity
of water is more than a certain number, then certain other provisions will apply certain
other specifications will apply.

The same concrete which can be placed in still water may not need the requirements
when it comes to running water and so on. So, once the engineer is aware of the fact,
then he looking for the right kind of specification as to what is the kind of concrete that
is going to be used under those conditions. Another key word that comes to our mind,
when you are placing concrete in water is self compactability and segregation resistance.
Concrete falling through water has a much larger tendency to segregate it should also be

766
such that it should be self-compactable. We do not want to vibrate concrete on the water,
we would like to just place it.

Let the concrete take the shape of the fond, which has been set in place and hardened.
So, we would like the concrete to have self compactability, it should be able to move
through the reinforcement because of course, as far as the underwater concreting is
concerned, it is not really plain concrete all the time. There can be reasonable amount of
reinforcement in those structures and the concrete can be reinforced concrete. Therefore,
the concrete should be able to negotiate the spaces between the reinforcement and should
have adequate segregation resistance.

As far as the methods of construction is concerned, one of the methods that is commonly
used is tremies or rockets and so on. So, in any case the concrete is simply taken under
water and dropped we will talk about tremie construction a little bit later. We have to be
careful, whether the concrete remains always submerged? Now, if it remains always
submerged, the kind of demand on the concrete is different compare to a situation where
the concrete may be placed under water. But over a period of time during its service life
it is exposed to air at times.

For example, if it remains under water all the time, then considerations like drying
shrinkage simply do not apply. Whereas, if it is exposed to the atmosphere or the air
during certain periods of its service life, then we have to be careful in terms of drying
shrinkage and the related issues in concrete. We can talk in terms of underwater
concreting in two ways. One is that we have a special method of construction, which
enables us to do the construction under water, but the concrete that we use is normal
concrete or slightly modified concrete that is sometimes it is stated in codes and
procedures.

That if the concrete is being placed under water a certain amount of extra cement may be
used or should be used, that comes from the fact that the code writer believes that when
the concrete is being placed in water a certain amount of cement may be washed away.
Therefore, as long as we are putting an extra amount of cement in the system strength
developments and so on will not be adversely effected. The second approach is to say
that well we design a special anti washout concrete, which does not segregate when
placed in water and this is something which we will see in a couple of slides later on.

767
(Refer Slide Time: 12:59)

Let me just spend a minute on tremie construction or the construction using buckets what
is really done is that, if we have this as the… Let me spend a minute on how construction
under water is effectively done? We have water from here to let us say this point. So, this
is all water this is the formwork that we are put in place and we want the concrete to be
placed within the formwork, without having to remove or without being able to remove
the water.

So, what we do is lower at pipe which is called the tremie pipe, we put concrete into this
and as the concrete emerges here. We gradually rise this pipe keeping on oaring more
and more concrete into it, making sure that the fresh concrete that emerges here is not in
contact with the water and only the initial concrete, which came out or emerge from the
tremie pipe is in contact with water. As the tremie pipes moves up more and more
concrete gets poured all over the place and we are able to get a construction underwater.

Depending on the size of this member, that we are trying to cast two pipes or more than
two pipes can also be lowered and it should be ensured that the concrete has been placed
in a manner that there no coal joints and so on and so forth. So, as far as tremie
construction is concerned, one of the important precautions that one must maintain is that
the end of that tremie pipe is always submerged or always buried in the concrete. It is not
exposed to water or we do not want as far as tremie construction is concerned is that the
tremie pipe allows the concrete to fall under water.

768
This concrete is always fresh concrete is always in contact with water. So, if the concrete
is allowed to fall freely in water that is something, which is not acceptable as far as most
tremie construction is concerned. We try to avoid free fall in air more showing water. So,
as far as water is concerned we must insist that the tremie pipe is always buried in
concrete being placed.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:40)

Now, coming to areas in which we are looking for such concretes it could be in terms of
bonding and solidifying rocks and a concrete blocks in shore protection works and
marine structures or it could be in under water reinforced concrete used in structures.
Such as wharfs intake and discharge facilities for industrial plants. So, it is not all the
time that we are talking in terms of marine structures, it could be industrial plants it
could be rivers anywhere it could be an alternative to precast construction in
breakwaters. It could be foundation work in any bridge, it could be in terms of
maintenance work of any of these underwater structures.

769
(Refer Slide Time: 16:24)

Now, if we look at anti washout concrete that is the special concrete or a special
concrete, which has properties that enable it to be especially useful underwater. This
picture here shows and anti washout mortar, that is we do not have aggregate in it, but if
we look at a normal mortar which has been placed or which has been dropped in still
water, then we see so much of muddy of the water. That is really the washout that is
occurring as far as the cement and the fines are concerned.

It is not only the cement, which is being washed out it is also the fine cement in the
mortar that are washed out and the water becomes muddy, but it of course, particles
being heavier than water. There is a certain amount of settlement that occurs as well.
Now, if we are able to have a concrete or a mortar which is something like this, that it
can be dropped through the water without muddying it, then we have the basis of an anti
washout concrete or an anti washout mortar, that is we have imparted to the mortar
sufficient amount of cohesiveness that the washout or techniques tendency to washout is
over powered by the cohesion.

Now, the point really is, how do we impart this cohesiveness and that is what is the crux
of the problem as far as design of anti washout concrete is concerned? Another things
that needs to be reiterated here is the fact that, so long as we have a mortar which is anti
washout getting the concrete which is anti washout is not all that difficult because at the
end of it aggregate suspended in mortar is the concrete. So, long as the mortar does not

770
have a tendency to segregate, it will keep the aggregate with it and therefore, we will get
an anti washout concrete, another picture here shows that of placing underwater concrete
using a diver.

So, here we are not really using a tremie kind of construction, here the diver is simply
placing the concrete just as a normal material being placed underwater. So, one of the
things that is notable about that picture is the fact, but you can see fresh around here
which shows that the concrete is not segregating or there is very little washout that is
occurring in the concrete, that is there is no muddying or sullying of the water around the
place where its being placed. So, this is the kind of construction that we are really talking
about this one of the very famous photographs of underwater concreting. I would
encourage you to take a look at it sometimes and try to study about it little more.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:30)

This again is another picture of rehabilitation kind of work, where a diver is trying to
place high quality underwater concrete without disturbing the marine life. Anti washout
concrete something which can be placed under water in a manner, which is as easy and
similar to that of normal concrete being placed in air when we placing concrete in air, we
do not think twice. Similarly, when we are placing anti washout, similarly when we are
trying to place anti washout concrete in water, we do not have to think twice about it
segregation and so on.

771
(Refer Slide Time: 20:13)

(Refer Slide Time: 20:42)

Initial development as far as anti washout concrete is concerned, to place in Germany

and it was followed by extensive research and applications in Japan. The concrete uses
obviously viscosity agent as a negative to normal concrete to address the problem of
segregation and bleeding underwater. So, this is what is the crux of anti washout
concretes as far as the materials are concerned. Normal blended cements can be used as
far as admixtures are concerned one has to be careful, its primarily that trick involves the
use of cellulose ether based viscosity agents, which provide the erosion resistance to the
concrete.

772
Of course, we need to have super plasticizers to reduce the water demand as far as the
dosage of these admixtures is concerned. Some experiments have to be carried out to
determine the right kind of dosage. Normally speaking, as the dosage of a chemical
admixture is increased its effectiveness increases, but at the end of it there is a limit
beyond, which further addition of the admixture does not lead to any improvement at a
desired property.

So, what we are looking at is a curve which is something like this that is at this point if
the dosage is very low the effectiveness is pretty low, but within this range as we
increase the dosage. If this is the does, the dosage and this is the parameter that we are
trying to monitor, then in this range it makes a lot of difference as to what is the kind of
dosage, which is being used. But beyond this point there is no real point in increase in
the dosage of the chemical admixture. Obviously has the implications in terms of the
money that is the concrete becomes more expensive.

So, we must know this point because we should understand that beyond that point there
is no effect of or no improvement that we get in terms of the property the concrete. So, as
far as the viscosity agent is concerned or the super plasticizers concerned, we have to be
careful and try to determine these point the effectiveness and that is what varies from one
admixture to another one, cement to another and compatibility issues come in. So, that is
why we need to have a online kind of a laboratory, which is a very real kind laboratory,
which keeps testing the cement that are coming in and being use that sites and also the
chemical admixtures when it comes to these special concretes.

773
(Refer Slide Time: 22:56)

Now, as far as a consistency of anti washout concrete is concerned, its governed by the
placing method and the placing condition. So, with this we conclude our discussion on
anti washout concretes. So, in a manner of speaking anti washout concrete is basically
just another high flow ability concrete, which is specially designed to be placed in water.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:24)

774
(Refer Slide Time: 23:27)

(Refer Slide Time: 23:39)

Now, from this regime where we are talking in terms of slump flows and so on. Let us
move to another concrete which is shotcrete and this is an entirely different method of
concrete construction. As far as definition is concerned, it is a concrete that is delivered
to the final point of placing in a sealed pressure resistance hose or pipe and applied by
spraying, this concrete requires no formwork and self-compacts. Now, if you look at this
picture which shows shotcrete construction in progress, this here is the area or the place
where the concretes finally needs to be placed.

775
It is being transported through this pipe, which is under pressure and the concrete is
being pumped out in the pressure coming out through this nozzle and is getting deposited
on the surface which is being concreted. So, in a manner of speaking, if this is the
surface on which we want to concrete we take a nozzle here, bring concrete under
pressure and this concrete is deposited on this surface. So, this is what is the fundamental
shotcrete construction?

Now, in order to have this construction, what are the kind of thing that we need to do as
far as the concrete is concerned? This is something which is very different from normal
concrete construction, in terms of formworks, in terms of vibration and all that as far as
formwork is concerned. Of course, as we see here there is no formwork requirement, the
concrete is applied on a surface and simply stays there. In very special cases concrete
could be deposited against a formwork, which is then removed, but that often does not
happen as far as compaction is concerned. In the case of shotcrete, it is achieved by the
high speed of deposition. So, when concrete particles whether it is cement or its coarse
aggregate and so on. The fact that they are deposited with certain amount of speed that
ensure, so the concretes compact or it compacts the layers of concrete being cast.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:51)

So, if we keep this picture of shotcrete construction in mind, we will understand the kind
of discussion that follows the application. As far as shotcreting or sometimes also called
guniting could include, construction in bridges repair works in bridges or dams. As far as

776
sewers are concerned, whether its sanitary or storm or culvert basins headwalls wing
walls piers and docks ditches retaining walls slope stabilization and so on. So, there are
lots of areas in civil engineering where shotcrete finds in application. It is not only
structural engineering in terms of buildings and so on, that it is required. It is also
required in terms of stabilizations of soils it required in terms of stabilization in slopes, it
is required to repair work of structures and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:33)

Now, the properties of shotcrete as placed depend not only the material in proportions
etcetera, but also the skill of the nozzleman that is the person whose operating the nozzle.
So, this is similar to that of a diver the role that nozzleman place as far as shotcrete is
concerned, is similar to that of the diver as far as under water concreting is concerned as
we saw in the previous discussion.

777
(Refer Slide Time: 27:19)

So, the workmanship is of critical importance in a quality control plan. In shotcrete

construction in principle there are two methods of placing shotcrete, one is the dry mix
and the other is the wet mix process. What these processes are, is almost self-
exploratory. For example, if it is are dry mix process, what we have is cement moist sand
and coarse aggregate, which may or may not be there in certain cases. We use simply
mortar that is placed brought into a delivery equipment into delivery hose, we compress
it take it to the nozzle and at the nozzle we add water under pressure.

So, there is no real mixing of the dry material with the water prior to coming in contact at
the nozzle at the very end and then the concrete is spread on to the surface. So, the
premix blend of dry cement and aggregate is propelled through hose by compressed air
to a nozzle and water is added to the mixture at the nozzle and the mixed ingredients are
projected onto the application surface.

778
(Refer Slide Time: 28:23)

Now, the fact that no initial mixing is being done with water mix, this concrete procedure
or this process, the dry mix process of placing shotcrete in contrast to this the wet mix
process involves shotcrete and which all ingredients except the accelerator. Now, that
accelerator is a chemical admixture. So, all the ingredients of concrete other than the
accelerator are mixed before introduction to the delivery hose and only an accelerator if
required is added at the nozzle, in a manner that the quality can be appropriately
regulated and monitored.

So, we have all the ingredients of concrete in the initial stages itself, concrete has been
mixed in a normal manner. Finally, being taken to the nozzle and spread on to the
surface, where it is going to be applied or where its need to be applied. Now, what about
the role of this accelerator in a normal concrete when it is being placed against
formwork? We had in no real hurry that the concrete should hardened accept that, yes we
want that concrete should hardened as soon as possible after it has been placed.

So, that other activities can follow, but in the case of shotcrete where the concrete can be
placed against a surface like this, which means that we want a deposit a layer of concrete
like this or for that matter if we are talking of a tunnel where we are trying to deposit the
concrete in this form in a layer like this, we have the problem of concrete being simply
falling off if it is left to hardened for a long time. So, in the case of shotcrete, the fact that

779
it is not being cast against formwork, the fact that it is not supported in the initial stages
by formwork, while it hardens makes it important.

That once it is placed it hardens very, very quickly to reduce what is rebound of this
falling off of the concrete can be called rebound or simply a separation and so on. In
order to minimize, that what we need is that the concrete once it is placed in position
should hardened very quickly and that is why we need an accelerator. Now, we cannot
use an accelerator in this stage here because we do not want the concrete to harden, while
it is in the system here rerun the concrete to hardened only after it has left the nozzle and
it has been deposited.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:55)

Now, continuing with our discussion as far as shotcrete is concerned, given the method
of placing shotcrete ingredients can also be pre-bagged, though all the ingredients can be
batched and mixed at site in the usual manner depending on whether we are using the dry
process or a wet process. We can use pre-bagged materials, which takes away any kind
of variations, that are likely to happen.

When we are talk in terms of mix proportions or batching of different ingredients to

some extent, it gives us better quality control in terms of the choice of the ingredients
and so on. But if we do not want to do thatm we can actually use normal concreting
process and mix the concrete in a usual manner accepted the method of placing is not
normal and we are trying to spray the concrete on to a surface.

780
(Refer Slide Time: 32:15)

Now, given the nature of this construction fibre reinforced concrete emerges as a
excellent option, so we will find in literature that very often we talk in terms of we find
applications of fibre reinforced shotcrete. Why fibre reinforced shotcrete gives us
excellent options? We will talk about in a minute as far as fibre reinforced shotcrete is
concerned, we could use steel synthetic fibers dispersed homogeneously. In shotcrete it
imparts sufficient ductility and fiber reinforced shotcrete have become cost competitive
with other forms of reinforcement and the impart better safety, and easy to use benefits
than traditional reinforcement.

Now, only in certain cases this discussion is true because fibre reinforced concrete most
of the time cannot really replace normal reinforced concrete fibre, reinforced concrete as
we have talked earlier. Really just alters the properties of the concrete makes it more
crack resistance, makes it more difficult for cracks to propagate through the concrete the
normal process of reinforcement is quite a different mechanism. But as far as concrete is
concerned, where concrete is actually deposited in layers, there fibre reinforcement is a
great help, because it prevents any kind of crack formation in those layers. Well not it
really prevents in the absolute sense, but minimizes.

781
(Refer Slide Time: 33:26)

(Refer Slide Time: 33:41)

Now, these are some examples of shotcrete applications. These are application here is
that of deteriorated corrugated steel pipes, so we can see that its rehabilitation will
require a lot of effort. If we look at this picture here, we find that the shotcrete has been
placed on the surface of the deteriorated corrugated iron sheet and we get a reasonably
clean looking system.

782
(Refer Slide Time: 33:57)

Coming to a brick sewer, if we look at this brick sewer here, we find that its highly
deteriorated and once we are able to apply shotcrete on the surface here, we get a system
which is rehabilitated or which is repaired.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:31)

783
(Refer Slide Time: 34:41)

(Refer Slide Time: 34:42)

So, what we do is apply shotcrete on the surface of this sewer here, including the top and
so on. We get a refined or a different surface of the concrete or a different surface of the
sewer. This here a pictures of a rehabilitation of in the infrastructure projects in terms of
bridges, in terms of marine structures, in terms of seismic retrofitting. One must
remember that concrete structures, though they are easy to build they are not so easy to
demolish and the resolve is the temptation to extent the service life.

784
That temptation to increase the service life or keep extending their service life, leads us
to solution such as application of shotcrete and so on. So, if we have an existing concrete
structure, we want to increase its cross section. We do not want to demolish their
structure and build a new structure. The option is shotcrete because at the end of it, what
we want is just to increase the thickness and to increase that thickness and try to place
concrete in a normal manner. Sometimes is not possible because the fact that then
concrete requires to be flown in very narrow spaces. That may be not possible except for
using self-compacting concrete and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:54)

So, at choice of an emerges in terms of whether using formwork and self-compacting

concrete or using shotcrete. This is another of those rehabilitation case studies, where we
have a retaining wall being repaired using shotcrete. Now, if we look at this picture
closely we will find that shotcrete surface or a shotcreted surface is not necessarily very
plain or a very smooth surface and it will be that, because the method of placement is
such that the thickness of concrete deposit may vary, depending on the skill of the
nozzleman. That is what causes variations in the thickness of the concrete deposited.

785
(Refer Slide Time: 36:58)

In certain cases where the thicknesses of critical importance and we really want to
measure that thickness as a part of quality control, we need to have methods by which
the thickness of this deposited. Shotcrete is properly determined and recorded, so that we
know that what we had set out to achieve is what we have achieved. This again is a
picture of retaining wall with rehabilitation. Here we can also see the application of a
reinforcement net and also nails to anchor the shotcrete to the existing retaining wall.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:20)

786
Now, coming to the characteristic of shotcrete, very often the material is characterized
with a low water cement ratio, especially in the dry process. That has its advantages in
terms of strength development and so on, because of the fact that we use accelerator, we
also have high early strength in the case of shotcrete. We also have a lot of wastage of
the material by way of rebound after placement. So, a certain amount of rebound is
unavoidable when we are talking of shotcrete construction and that is something, which
an engineer must account for with a scale of the nozzleman.

The rebound can be minimized, what it cannot be eliminated as I said before the
compaction in this kind of construction, is on account of application of concrete with
high speeds. We might sometimes have reduced cost in shotcrete construction, as we do
not have any expenditure to make on formworks.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:55)

Shotcrete construction is ideally suited for thin layers, it cannot be placed or shotcrete
cannot be placed in thick layers at least in a single go. So, what we can do is to have one
layer of shotcrete and then another layer of shotcrete. But it is difficult to have this whole
thickness being shotcreted in one go as far as curing of shotcrete is concerned. It is the
usual process, the concrete needs to be cured continuously by maintaining a moist
condition, which could be by way of ponding or continuous sprinkling of water covering
with a mat, which is kept wet covering that concrete with an impervious sheet, all use of
curing compounds.

787
Of course, if the relative humidity in the atmosphere is higher than 95 percent or
something, then of course, requirements for external curing may be reviewed. Because in
the end of it curing is a process by which we try to eliminate or minimize any loss of
moisture from the surface of the concrete. We want to provide as much water as we can
for the hydration and strength development of the material.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:56)

(Refer Slide Time: 40:51)

So, the basic understanding of cement concrete does not alter when we are doing
shotcrete kind of construction. As far as materials and properties are concerned, I have

788
already stated that concrete construction is economical only to the extent, when most
special materials are used. Therefore, even in this case, no special materials are such
except that care has to be taken in choosing the cement coarse aggregate in terms of its
shape and size, chemical admixtures from the point of view of compactability and fibers.

If added we have to be careful in the choice of the materials and ensure that, we do not
have a problem in terms of rebound, in terms of courage, in terms of the distance,
through which the concrete has to go in air before being deposited. Quality control has to
be carried out as usual on the basis of compressive tensile and flexural strength or any
other relevant parameter depending upon the specification application.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:00)

Having gotten this overview of shotcrete, let us try to close the discussion today with a
series of questions. We could make a list of case studies where special concretes have
been used in underwater constructions. What we are talking about is the application of
anti washout concretes, as we have seen in the first part of the discussion. We can make a
list of the proportions that have been used in these cases from the point of view of
chemical admixtures, especially viscosity modifiers in terms of their chemical nature or
the chemistry of the viscosity modifiers.

How it acts from the cement hydration and its compactability and dosage with different
levels of strength coming to shotcrete. One could compare the specifications from the
point of view of sampling and testing procedure. One thing which we have not covered

789
specifically here, now I would to like to leave it as an assignment is the sampling
process. In the case of underwater concrete for example, how should the cubes or
cylinders be cast?

The concrete is normally brought to site in an agitator truck and would we like to take
the cubes or cylinders, for monitoring the strength development in air in the normal
manner or we should do it under water would be help of the diver, that is something
which needs to be decided by the engineer. We could do both and that is something
which you can decide or you can think about if you were the site engineer, where
underwater concreting is being carried out. What is the kind of regime that you would
like to follow? What are the specifications? What do the standard say because at the end
of it, it cannot be left only to the wings and fancies of the project manager.

Similarly, in the case of shotcrete, how should the sampling be carried out? Because
when we are shotcreting, it is simply not possible to actually take the a cast the cylinders
or cubes. So, what usually is done is that a panel is cast other than the kind of normal
casting and coarse are taken out of the panel and tested for strength. These are some of
the things that may be those of you are more interested could do some reading on and
educate yourself.

Thank you.

790
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 24
Alkali – aggregate reaction (Part 1 of 2)

And welcome to another lecture on concrete engineering and technology.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:20)

This slide outlines basically the content that we are trying to go through.

791
(Refer Slide Time: 00:26)

The discussion today would start on some of the aspects of mechanisms related to
deterioration of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:35)

And the subjects that we have been talking about or we plan to talk about in this course
include reinforcement corrosion, alkali aggregate reaction, freezing and thawing,
chloride penetration and concrete and carbonation.

792
(Refer Slide Time: 00:55)

So, today’s discussion largely focuses on alkali aggregate reaction.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:58)

Now, let us look at this picture which shows concrete as a multiphase composite. We
have looked at this picture before, but that was from the point of view of proportioning
your concrete mix. At that time, the focus was to say that well there is a certain amount
of concrete, of certain volume of material which has to be filled and their we would place
certain amount of coarse aggregate, a certain amount of sand and cement and water to
make concrete.

793
Today, the focus is not on the volumetric’s, but on what really happens at the interfaces
of aggregates and the mortar face in which they are embedded. So, this is a problem
where we are looking at the interaction, the chemical interaction that occurs between the
aggregates which we can see here and the surrounding mortar face. The mortar face has a
chemical nature; the pores there are filled with pore solution which has a lot of ions in it.
Those ions are coming from the hydration products of cement.

So, the ionic composition of the pore solution is related to the chemical composition of
cement. So, what happens around these rims or the interfaces really is that the aggregate
surface reacts with the compounds or the chemical complexes which are present in pour
solution and that is the beginning or that is the whole essence of alkali aggregate
reaction.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:03)

So, what we will do today is to go through very briefly some background material on
alkali aggregate reaction, have a bird’s eye view of the mechanisms involved. We will
try to understand a little bit about what happens to concrete and concrete structures when
alkali aggregate reaction takes place. We will try to understand or go through the
principals involved in testing aggregates for potential alkali aggregate reactivity and we
will try to go through some steps that may be taken to prevent alkali aggregate reaction
or at least the steps that can be taken to mitigate the harmful effects that may come as a
result of that reaction.

794
(Refer Slide Time: 03:55)

So, getting started our initial premise or the assumption in the concrete engineering was
that concrete can be considered to be a solid where the aggregate are embedded or
suspended in a solidified mortar or paste matrix.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:42)

So, that is they do not chemically react. Then generally speaking the aggregate phase in
concrete is considered to be inert and does not react with the surrounding mortar or
paste. More specifically the chemical components of the pore solution and that is what
we were talking about when we were looking at a close up of a core or surface of

795
concrete drawn from within. This assumption of the aggregates being largely inert is true
in most cases, but with the developments in concrete science it is now understood that
certain aggregates are certainly not inert and at an iterious reaction a harmful reaction
can be observed between the aggregates and the surrounding pore solution.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:36)

The alkali aggregate reaction results in the expansion of concrete and finally, cracking on
the surface. So, without going through the entire mechanism this is what really happens.
Once, alkali will get reaction occurs the changes that happen in the concrete cause the
concrete to expand and this expansion results in cracking which appears at the surface.
This picture here shows representation of what really happens. There is alkali in the
concrete and if it reacts or if it is occurring in combination with reactive aggregates then
we have some reaction products which are formed and these reaction products if you
read the literature are sometimes called gels.

So, this reactive gel absorbs water and water is present in concrete in abundance. Either
it is present from the initial time or in certain cases it absorbs water from the atmosphere,
there is rainfall and so on which contributes to making the concrete wet and all that water
is available for the gel to absorb and that absorption leads to expansion and cracking. So,
if we look at it schematically in a very interesting kind of a diagram which is shown
here, if we have reactive aggregates as shown then we can have cracks between these
aggregates as can be seen here.

796
And these aggregate cracks or these cracks appear on the surface causing wide spread
cracking. The cracking is wide spread because aggregates obviously in concrete are
completely distributed all over the place. There are aggregates close to the surface, there
are aggregates within the concrete and all of them are reacting except that when those
closer to the surface have a greater meaning for us because the cracks are formed on the
surface, the water absorption is easier for aggregates and the reaction products formed
closer to the surface and so on.

Now, in the case of reacted concrete or the concrete that has undergone damage or
deterioration on account of alkali aggregate reaction. We can have map cracking that is
the kind of cracks that we see in a concrete structure damaged on account of alkali
aggregate reaction. We see strength reduction and the reduction in the models of
elasticity of concrete as a result of the formation of these cracks. There is this issue of
poor durability. Once, these cracks of formed it can be argued that the structure is no
longer serviceable. Aesthetically, these cracks are very unappealing, there is poor water
tightness obviously in a structure once cracks are formed and if aggregates are used in
the structure which is supposed to be water tight and that concrete undergoes alkali
aggregate reaction, the water tightness is definitely compromised.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:22)

So, indeed a reaction such as the alkali aggregate reaction is not desirable and as
engineers we need to take steps to understand the implications of the problem, have test

797
methods for the classification of aggregates, ensure that the aggregates used in the
construction are non reactive and understand some of the steps that may be taken to
ensure that the deleterious effects that may come about from the unavoidable use of
reactive aggregates are minimized. If you follow cement and concrete to a certain extent
it is easy to understand that aggregates in a particular construction site are usually drawn
from quarries in the nearby areas. And the mineralogy or the reactivity of aggregates can
be studied once and if we know that certain quarries are reactive or the aggregates from
certain quarries are reactive, engineers using aggregates from those quarries need to
become careful.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:35)

Summarizing, the alkali aggregate reaction is reaction between the reactive minerals
present in some of the aggregates and the alkali metals, sodium and potassium present in
the pore solution formed during the hydration of ordinary portland cement. And these
alkali metals are presents small quantities in the raw materials of the OPC and remain as
a part of the OPC. So, when we talk of the alkali aggregate reaction, the alkali refers to
the presence of alkali metals, that is sodium and potassium in the ordinary portland’s
cement. When we say aggregate, the aggregate at the end is made up of minerals and
those minerals which are reactive, reactive in the sense that they react with the alkali
metals. Then we have alkali aggregate reaction.

798
(Refer Slide Time: 10:50)

So, it is not really the aggregate that reacts. Obviously, the aggregate is made up of
minerals and the minerals they react and if an aggregate is made up of reactive minerals
we have alkali aggregate reaction and if the aggregate has non reactive minerals there is
no alkali aggregate reaction. As far as listing down some of the reactive minerals and
rocks is concerned, we should remember that all aggregates contain a large amount of
silica and now the S i O bond is known to be one of the most stable ones and this is
possibly at the root of the inert nature of most aggregates.

However, certain forms of silica is reactive and it is not really only silica, there are some
other minerals also which have been identified to be reactive of late and the reactive
substances could be opal, chalcedony, cristobalite, tridymite, rhyolitic and some other
forms of glass like (( )) glass and the rocks which contains these minerals. And the rocks
containing these reactive minerals could be opaline cherts, chalcedonic cherts, dacites
and tuffs, andesites, siliceous shales, siliceous limestones and so on.

So, it is really a matter of identifying what is the principle mineral in the rock which an
engineer wants to use as an aggregate at a given site. Once, that analysis has been done it
is easy to identify or understand, plan whether or not the concrete that is going to be used
at a particular site is likely to suffer alkali aggregate reaction or not. Of course, the
presence of reactive minerals is only one part of the story. We have also to understand

799
that at the end of it there is the alkali and that is something which we will address later
on when we are talking of controlling ways and means of alkali aggregate reaction.

Now, depending upon the rocks involved in the alkali aggregate reaction researchers
sometimes classify this problem into that of alkali silica reaction. The alkali silicate
reaction and at times alkali carbonate reaction. So, we are not going to the chemistry
involved in the reactions as to how the alkali metals attack the different minerals and
how the alkali ions penetrate into the structure of the silica bond and cause deteriorative
or disruptive reactions.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:32)

But we must remember that these are some of the different classifications that have been
developed as more and more information about alkali aggregate reactions has been
published and has become available.

800
(Refer Slide Time: 13:41)

So, now alkali aggregate reaction is characterized by the formation of a gel like product
around the rims of the aggregates and deposition of the gels in pores and cracks
surrounding the aggregates. So, let us look at this piece of concrete which is part of a
once again and what is being said is that alkali aggregate reaction involves the formation
of gels around these aggregates and that is what is a reaction rim. So, if we look at
pictures of concrete affected by alkali aggregate reaction, we will be able to identify a
reaction rim in the neighborhood of the cracks or in the neighborhood of the aggregates.
Now, this gel itself is relatively innocuous and becomes deleterious only when it absorbs
water and this absorption of water leads to an expansion of the gel and thus finally, the
cracking.

801
(Refer Slide Time: 14:45)

This here is a representation of the expansion that is been observed in concrete over time
with different kinds of alkali aggregate reaction. So, if we look at age which is time in
this direction and the amount of expansion which is observed in this direction, then
depending on different factors, we have different kinds of expansion that is observed.
Different kinds of expansion means the characteristics of expansion are different for
example, in this graph here and this one here the expansion starts more or less
immediately whereas, in these two cases the expansion is very slow to begin with and
then gradually becomes more rapid when we have a much faster increase in the
expansion with time. So, that is the rate is much faster at that point in time, but one thing
which is very interesting to observe in all cases is the fact that in all the cases there
seems to be a limiting value at which the expansion ceases.

802
(Refer Slide Time: 16:42)

So, now this limiting value at which the expansion ceases that is the expansion does not
occur anymore and that may happen at different points in time, it may happen at different
levels of expansion and so on, but apparently it does happen. As engineers we therefore,
know that alkali aggregate reaction does not continue ad infinitum, it does not continue
all the time. Why it stops is a different problem, it is something which we can ponder
about, create a model which replicates that phenomenon based on science and that is
something which we will try to do.

This here is another illustration of expansion in concrete due to alkali aggregate reaction
and we see exactly the same kind of behavior. This aggregate expands much faster
initially, but then it tapers off, it does not expand beyond this point. This aggregate does
not expand initially, but picks up after a certain point in time and then it goes on to
increase. We must remember that these times are in months. When studying alkali
aggregate reaction we should also keep in mind that concrete structures are built and
remain in service for several tens of years.

And therefore, the reaction is very, very slow. It is slow for various reasons. Silica is not
a easy bond to break or penetrate. Number one, the surface area available for the
aggregates is large and the amount of alkali fortunately as far as cement is concerned is
relatively low and so on. So, all this contributes to the reaction being very slow and
therefore, when we talk in terms of months or weeks, what really is done is accelerated

803
tests in the lab and these accelerated tests have their own limitations in terms of
translating the time axis and also the fact that reading such as this which still does not
show the tapering phase or the asymptotic final expansion. They are to be borne in mind
from that point of view.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:36)

Now, from the representative sketches of the expansion observed with time on account
of alkali aggregate reaction, it can be seen that the expansion time graph is characterized
by an initial incubation period when no expansion or very little expansion is seen. The
expansion begins to pickup, there is slow expansion to begin with, the reaction enters
into a rapid expansion phase and finally, the expansion stops, some kind of a limiting
value being reached.

804
(Refer Slide Time: 19:10)

And looking at it physically this process follows the following phases. There is the
permeation of alkali metal ions that is sodium and potassium through the aggregates.
There is the breakup of the silica bond and the lodging of alkali metals within the
normally stable and inert silica tetrahedron along with the formation of complexes. There
is absorption of water from pore solution by the complexes leading to expansion of those
complexes and finally, cracking of the concrete due to expansive pressures from this
complexes.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:52).

805
Now, if we look at a simple model what we look at is something like this. We take a
spherical aggregate and this aggregate is surrounded by some amount of sodium and
potassium ions and the amount being governed by the kind of sodium and potassium that
is present originally in the cement as impurities and so on. And these sodium and
potassium ions they gradually permeate through the aggregates and the extent of
diffusion after all the aggregates are not very porous.

So, this diffusion of sodium and potassium ions into the aggregates is a painfully slow
processes, very fortunately so for civil engineers. Now, this X here represents the
thickness of the aggregate which has been reacted or which has been affected by the
infiltration or penetration of the alkali ions. Inside this aggregate, this part here is still
unreacted. So, if we go back to the discussion that we had a couple of minutes earlier this
part here is really the rim.

So, in this part the original silica or the reactive silica has now been transformed into a
gel or the gel products have been formed and if there are some pores and fishers or
cracks around in this area then this reaction products would be able to travel a little bit
and we can see those reaction products or the gel in the cracks and fishers around the
aggregate as well. So, this reaction ratio of aggregate depends upon the diffusion
coefficient k, the concentration of alkali C, the time t and the radius of the aggregate.

So, if we keep this mathematical formulation in mind which defines the reaction ratio
which is essentially how much of aggregate has reacted with respect to the original
aggregate size, we can understand that the size of the aggregate is a very important
determinant as far as the amount of reaction or the extent of the reaction is concerned.
So, really speaking there are several factors at play. One is the size of the aggregate
which governs the surface area and the other is the absolute quantity of alkali metals
sodium and potassium in the pore solution.

806
(Refer Slide Time: 23:29)

Now, since the alkali metal quantity is really a constant, once we know how much
cement has been used, once we know what was the chemical composition of the cement
that was used we know the type of or the extent or the quantity of the alkali metals
present in the pore solution. Now, these amount of alkali metals are available for the
reaction of a certain surface area of the aggregates. Now, if the particles are smaller the
surface area becomes larger and the concentration of alkali metals per surface area or per
unit area goes down.

So, if on the other hand the particles are larger the concentration available of alkali
metals is larger and so on. So, this has to be kept in mind when we try to develop tests
for identifying potentially reactive aggregates. In other words the extent of the reaction
and the expansion on account of the alkali aggregate reaction can be looked upon as a
complex function of the relative levels of alkali present which is the alkali content of
cement and the cement content in the concrete.

The extent of reactive silica present and that varies from one type of rock to the other.
The entire rock need not have only reactive silica, it can have a certain percentage of the
minerals which are reactive, the other minerals being non reactive and geologists would
advice us on this aspect. The surface area available, the particle size distribution of
reactive particles, we would remember or we know, we must keep in mind that as far as
aggregates are concerned we have fine aggregates and we have coarse aggregates.

807
Even though when I was showing the core of the concrete and the kind of discussion so
far I have tried to focus on course aggregates being reactive. But it must remembered
that at the end of it fine aggregates are equally susceptible to alkali aggregate reaction.
They are also supposed to be inert materials. Sand is not supposed to be a part of the
reactive phase of concrete, the reactive phase of concrete comprising only of cement and
water which take part in the hydration reaction.

So, the sand is also coming from rocks and could be reactive. The sand also has a
mineralogical composition and depending on the minerals present in the sand, the sand
could be reactive and therefore, we are talking of a particle size distribution of reactive
particles. Now, this discussion includes sand and coarse aggregate. We should also
remember that in several of the test methods that we will talk about later on, the test
involve the use of sand or use of particles from even coarse aggregate which are ground
to a very fine value, so that we accelerate the reaction.

And in order to accelerate the reaction we add more and more alkali in the system to get
our results in a hurry, to carry our accelerated tests. All minerals are not necessarily
equally reactive. We listed some of the minerals in the previous slide opal, chalcedony,
some kind of class and (( )) class, (( )) class and so on. All these minerals are not equally
reactive. The reactivity of the minerals is also important aspect when we try to
understand the extent and expansion on account of alkali aggregate reaction.
Environmental conditions, temperature and humidity; this is a very important player as
far as the progress of alkali aggregate reaction is concerned.

Now, one must remember that even though we must understand and include in our model
the importance of environmental condition such as temperature and humidity, but in civil
engineering applications we cannot really control the atmosphere. The atmosphere is
given, if we want to build a bridge at a certain place we are given the fact that the
temperature and the relative humidity at that point in, at that point place varies in certain
manner over the years or over the year and over the years. We cannot really change that,
but we must keep that in our design calculations or in we must reflect those in over
design thought or when we try to design this structure there.

808
(Refer Slide Time: 27:47)

Now, what are the implications of alkali aggregate reaction? It leads to additional strains
in reinforcing steel. Now, we know that concrete is not very often used without
reinforcement. Reinforcing steel is in integral part of a lot of concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:19)

Now, if the concrete has alkali aggregate reaction what happens to the reinforced
concrete which is a composite made out of steel and concrete. Now, this here is a simple
reinforced concrete beam having this cross section and this length with this amount of
reinforcement at the bottom. Now, if the concrete that is made undergoes alkali

809
aggregate reaction and subsequent expansion, what do we expect? If the concrete is
unreinforced then it will simply expand from one position to another that is something
like this.

So, this amount of expansion in the concrete has been induced on account of alkali
aggregate reaction neglecting of course, the end effects whereas, in reinforced concrete
this is not likely to happen. This portion of concrete is not reinforced and is relatively
free to expand whereas; this portion at the bottom the expansion is constrained. So, what
is likely to happen is that these fibers here will become longer, the expansion will be
larger and the expansion here will be smaller and the only way that this can be satisfied
is by having the reinforced concrete beam deform the way that is shown here. And this
expansion, which has which occurs here in the concrete, this expansion has to be
reflected also in the expansion of the bar. So, without doing anything the reinforcing bar
has now undergone some amount of tensile strains.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:54)

So, apart from additional strains in the reinforcing steel the situation acts like a
mechanism for chemical prestressing. There is cracking at the surface of the concrete
that could promote ingress of other deleterious materials, such as carbon dioxide deeper
into the concrete and there is map cracking that is cracking on the surface of the concrete
that reduces the modulus of elasticity of the concrete and also its compressive strength,
besides being aesthetically unacceptable.

810
(Refer Slide Time: 31:51)

Now, we come to the tests for reactivity of aggregates. These tests are important because
we need to identify if the aggregate that we are going to use in a particular construction
they are reactive or not. We want to make sure that they are not reactive and if we know
that they are reactive then we need to take appropriate corrective action. Some of the
tests that are carried out in this regard are spectrographic examination, the quick
chemical test and the mortar bar expansion test and these are standard methods.

The standard methods pay special attention and lay down specific guidelines for items
such as the size of the particle to be used, amount of alkali to be used, environmental
conditions, temperature, humidity and so on because these are accelerated test in the
laboratory. They have to carry out under standard conditions and those standard
conditions need to be defined in terms of the particle size distribution of the aggregate
sample.

The amount of alkali that is used in the, in preparing the sample, the environment in
which the aggregate and the alkali or whatever we use as a simulating environment is
stored in terms of the temperature, humidity and so on and also the parameters that we
will use to monitor the reactivity, And finally, there have to be specifications which tell
us that if the test is carried out in accordance with such and such a procedure and such
and such a parameter has been used to monitor the extent of reactivity, what is the

811
maximum or minimum acceptable level of that parameter and beyond which or below
which the aggregate will be deemed to be reactive.

We must remember that these tests need to be carried out quickly, so that a decision can
be made as to whether the aggregate from a particular quarry should be used or not. They
should be reliable because it should not happen that aggregate has been discarded simply
because it was deemed to be reactive and finally, turns out it is not reactive. The reason
for the reliability is also the fact that there is economics involved. If we reject the
aggregate from a particular quarry then the aggregate has to be brought from another
place which could be further away.

That has implications in terms of the cost of the project, the duration of the project. It has
environmental issue for example; the transportation of aggregates over a longer distance
increases the carbon foot print emissions and so on. So, there are all kinds of reasons
why this exercise has to be carried out with at most care.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:37)

Let us look at the quick chemical test for a reactivity of the aggregates. The test is based
on the dissolution of the reactive component in of silica and consumption of the hydroxyl
ions in the process. The test involves grinding the sample rock so as to conform to a
particular particle size distribution. Now, once we grind it we are reducing the rock to a
very small particle size. So, the distinction between coarse aggregate and fine aggregate
is lost.

812
We are trying to evaluate the suitability of that rock for use in concrete either as a coarse
aggregate or as a fine aggregate and that decision the engineer takes separately. What is
going on here is only identification as to whether the rock from a particular quarry or a
particular rock basically has reactive components of silica or not. So, the first step is
grinding that rock sample, leaving the powder to react in a solution of sodium hydroxide
of known concentration at a particular temperature for a fixed duration and recording the
loss of alkalinity and the increase in the silica content of the solution.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:00)

Now, based on lots of test that have been carried out if the reduction in alkalinity and the
silica content, the dissolve silica is plotted in a graph, this test is based on a, this test is
based on S T M standards, that is a standard method in ASTM to carry out the test. There
is a line that is defined or that has been drawn which defines that if the value comes in
this region the aggregate can be deemed to be innocuous whereas if it comes in this
region, it is not innocuous.

And the test being carried out at 1 N N a O H at 80 degree centigrade for 24 hours and so
on using rock samples which have been ground to 150 to 300 micrometer size. Now, this
is based primarily on experience of reactive aggregates and non reactive aggregates. It is
not really based on a scientific measurement of the amount of reaction that has taken
place or the extent of the reaction rim that has been formed and so on. It is a purely
engineering, empirical approach which says that well from all the experience that has

813
gathered over the tens of years that civil engineers have used coarse aggregates and fine
aggregates from different quarries and different locations, has there been a known case
of alkali aggregate reaction, a known case of large scale cracking in structures made
from the coarse aggregate or the fine aggregate drawn from that place.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:46)

Now, this here is another picture of test carried out using that ASTM method that we
have talked about and this is the innocuous zone and this zone which in the previous
picture was given as deleterious or not innocuous has been further divided with the
dotted line here which says that aggregates in this portion are potentially deleterious
whereas, the aggregates in this portion are deleterious. So, these are the aggregate which
are actually deleterious, these are the aggregates which are innocuous and these
aggregates here are potentially deleterious.

Now, this potentially deleterious means that it is not really very clear as to whether in the
long run we will have a harmful effect on account of alkali aggregate reaction if we use
aggregates from that region. This has implication, several implications. This throws the
quick chemical test into a bind. We do not know sometimes how to use the results from
this test. The test results are inconclusive. So, as far as the region A and the region C is
concerned that is innocuous and deleterious. This decision is relatively clear, but a
reaction, but a decision on this portion here is not possible only on account of or only
from the results of the quick chemical test.

814
(Refer Slide Time: 39:43)

For that we should understand something else, we talk of the extent of alkali present in a
given cement and that is known from the amounts of sodium oxide and the potassium
oxide present in the cement and theses values are usually available towards the bottom of
the chemical analysis of the cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:32)

And the total alkali content of the cement is expressed as equivalent sodium oxide and
given as N a 2 O plus 0.658 times K 2 O and the constant 0.658 coming from the relative
atomic weights of sodium and potassium. So, this helps us understand the total amount

815
of alkali present in the cement as we mentioned before the quick chemical test can be
completed very quickly, it just takes about 24 hours to carry out the test and another
couple of hours to carry out analysis.

It is often not considered conclusive enough especially in the cases when the aggregate is
found to be potentially reactive or potentially deleterious. And in such cases it is
recommended that other tests such as the mortar bar expansion test is carried out. The
quick chemical test really is just a test of suspending ground aggregate particles in
solution of alkali, a strong solution of alkali and accelerating the process by increasing
the temperature. This is not a test representative of the conditions that a concrete is likely
to face. So, the mortar bar expansion test which is mentioned here which is sometimes
carried out after the quick chemical test or as a measure to validate the findings of the
quick chemical test that is slightly closer to the real situation.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:48)

Several variations of this test have been standardized and only the basic principle is
outlined here.

816
(Refer Slide Time: 41:51)

This test is carried out using mortar bars, cast using cement of known alkali content. So,
we use a cement, we carry out the chemical analysis, we know how much of alkali is
there in that cement, we use sand conforming to a given particles as distribution obtained
from crushing the rock sample which is being studied. The proportions ought to be used
are predetermined and the total alkali content is adjusted. Because the cement alone will
not be able to contribute enough alkali to cause the kind of expansion that we would like
to see happen in a reasonable period of time, so that a decision can be made as to
whether the aggregate is suitable or not.

And therefore, we want to increase the amount of alkali in this accelerated test and that
increment is carried out by using crystals of sodium hydroxide in an appropriate amount.
The specimens are cast and cured given period of time and their initial length is recorded
and then monitored as they are stored in a given regime of temperature and humidity and
specifications laid down the acceptable or unacceptable levels of expansion at different
points in time.

817
(Refer Slide Time: 43:12).

Now, how this test is carried out is shown here. This is a special mold for casting the
specimens for the mortar bar expansion test and here we also see the simple device
which is used to measure the change in length of these specimens. These specimens
which are caused in this mold, they are placed here and the changes are monitored or the
changes in length is monitored using the dial gauge here, there are different ways of
doing it, but in principle that is what it is and what we try to study is the time versus
expansion graph.

And once we have specifications they have to tell us that either the maximum expansion
at a particular point in time should be so much. Anything below that is acceptable,
beyond that is not acceptable or they should lay down a time at which a certain
expansion is reached. If the expansion does not reach or if the expansion reaches that
level beyond a certain point in time the aggregate is acceptable.

818
(Refer Slide Time: 45:20)

If it reaches that point before that it is unacceptable. It might happen that the aggregate
from a particular quarry has been used without testing it for reactivity and it turns out
that it was reactive. Now, at some point in time the engineers have to make a decision as
to what kind of measures need to be taken to prevent further expansion. See alkali
aggregate reaction is a problem that cannot be reversed. If we have the reactive silica and
the alkali, the reaction is bound to happen.

What can be done in an existing structure which has been suspected to be afflicted with
alkali aggregate reaction is only to find out whether the limiting expansion or the
limiting amount of damage has already being done or the structure is still in the reaction
phase. So, for that what we need to do is to take cores from the structure and as it is
discussed here experience has shown that expansion due to alkali aggregate reaction
ceases after sometime and from an engineering point of view it is important to determine
in a given structure, more expansion can be expected or not and it has been suggested
that this can be carried out by using cores from the structure and making efforts to
accelerate the reaction and measuring the resulting strains in the core.

819
(Refer Slide Time: 45:56)

In this context in additional to the longitudinal strains effort is also made to use
circumferential gauges as it is shown here. So, in addition to the longitudinal expansion
in this core in this direction, effort is also made to measure the changes in the
circumferential strain and this core that is taken from the structure is tested using
accelerated tests with high sodium potassium environment, increased temperature and so
on.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:48)

820
So, this is a semi destructive procedure for assessment of the extent of damage on
account of alkali aggregate reactions in a existing structure. Now, having gone through
some of these aspects of alkali aggregate reaction let us close the discussion for the day
with some questions which need to be thought about and some work that needs to be
carried out. We can collect images or photographs of alkali aggregate reaction effected
structures and study the cracking and the details of the concrete used in terms of the
characteristics of the aggregate that are used from a geological point of view, the kind of
cement that was used, how much of alkali was there, the proportion that was used and so
on.

You study the details of the test methods that we discussed. We discussed the quick
chemical test and the mortar bar expansion test. We did not discuss the details of those
tests in terms of their specimen size, in terms of the actual storage conditions and so on.
So, that is something which we need to go into a little bit more, we also need to extend
the kind of tests that are used. We had done only the mortar bar expansion test. Now,
sometimes it can be argued that the mortar bar expansion test itself is not really
representative of the actual situation in concrete.

And therefore, we should use concrete specimens. Except that in concrete specimens the
aggregate size is being very large, the reactions being very slow, it takes a much longer
time for the expansions to be such that we can make a final decision. So, these are some
of the aspects which one can go into and study in greater length. We have not done the
chemistry and geology of the alkali aggregate reaction and that is something which will
be very interesting as to how the alkali metals really react with the silica and what is the
geology, what is the mineralogy of different aggregates and very interesting field in
terms of the techniques that are used to better understand alkali aggregate reaction.

What we did today was just a very, very cursory or a very simplistic view of the test
methods to evaluate aggregates, but in order to study alkali aggregate reaction some very
sophisticated techniques are used and that would be an eye opener if you really want to
get into what techniques have been used, what are the available methods to identify the
gel, how it has moved into different cracks and so on. And with this we come to a close
of the discussion today.

Thank you.

821
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 25
Alkali – aggregate reaction (Part 2 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:28)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:32)

822
Namaskar, and welcome back to our discussion on concrete engineering and technology.
Continuing our discussion on mechanisms of deterioration in concrete, we were talking
about alkali aggregate reaction.

We will briefly go through some back ground, mechanisms of the reaction, implications
of the alkali aggregate reaction, common tests for identifying reactive aggregates. And
steps to prevent alkali aggregate reaction, out of these we have already seen the
background information mechanisms some part of implications, and we have discussed
the quick chemical test, and the mortar bar expansion test which are two of the more
commonly used, standard tests to identify reactive aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:14)

So, we will continue our discussion from that point onwards, and we revise some of the
fundamentals we look at concrete as the multiphase composite from the point of view of
the fact. That now we are not trying to do the volumetric’s which we did when we
looked at this slide from the point of view of proportional of mixes. Now, we will try to
study the immediate neighborhood of a given aggregate, I have drawn the circle here
around the course aggregate which is easier to draw. Of course, it should be understood
that when we talk of alkali aggregate reactions, we are talking of the reaction of fine
aggregates or course aggregates.

So, it is not really a matter of what aggregate we are talking about in the sense that our
fundamental understanding was that sand and coarse aggregate, that is the fine

823
aggregates and the coarse aggregates are both inert. And do not take part in any chemical
reaction they do not react with the cement or it is hydration products; they basically act
as only fillers. This understanding is precisely what changes when we talk about alkali
aggregate reactions when the reactive components in terms of the minerals that comprise
the fine aggregate or the coarse aggregate they react with the pore solution formed as a
result of the hydration of cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:48)

These pictures here they show some cracks which are formed on account of alkali
aggregate reaction will go through the mechanisms a little bit in detail once again.

But these pictures show us the kind of map cracking or an all round cracking that occurs
in i structured when it is afflicted by alkali aggregate reactions. This is the picture which
is from a pavement which was cast using concrete which had reactive aggregates. This
picture here is a slightly different representation of what happens when alkali aggregate
reaction occurs, we can see here that this crack here is fairly void crack so aggregate. So,
alkali aggregate reaction induced cracking in structures is not in significant it is not
something which we would like to ignore, because such cracks have a structure
implications they have durability implications and so on.

In this picture in this part here we also see the deposit of the white gel that is the reaction
product of the reactive silica and the alkali metals that a part of the pore solution. So, the
gel that is form that absorbs water and gives rise to cracks that gel moves around;

824
obviously, in the cracks and fishers that are formed within the concrete. And this is
manifestation where we see that gel exuding to the surface of the structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:45)

This picture we are see in the previous discussion where we saw that the alkali aggregate
reaction is basically a reaction of the alkali in concrete which is the sodium and
potassium ions which are present as impurities in the ordinary Portland cement and the
reactive aggregate. The reactive aggregate means aggregate which has certain reactive
minerals not all forms of silica is reactive only certain minerals like opal, cristobalite
some forms of class they are the reactive minerals. And if they we are present in the rock
they aggregate that we use we have the aggregate which is reactive. And once they come
together in a concrete we have a reaction product and this reaction product is basically a
gel and which in itself is innocuous. But it has the tendency to absorb water and once at
thus absorb water it swells and induces cracks of the verity that we so in the picture just
now. So, the alkali aggregate reaction in concrete needs to map cracking reduction in the
strength and rigidity or the module of velocity of the concrete poor durability and water
tightness.

825
(Refer Slide Time: 06:10)

This picture again is schematic representation of the expansion that we see on account of
alkali aggregate reaction over a period of time. This picture shows that most of the time
the reaction tends to stop that is the expansion tends to stop after a certain period of time
and there is a limiting value to that expansion. This is something which is of in interest to
engineers, because in a 16 structures where in advertently reactive aggregates are used,
one me light to know whether the reaction is still continuing. And we can expect further
deterioration or more formation of cracks or it has reached a situation where no more
dimension is likely. Given the fact of course, that alkali aggregate reaction cannot be
reversed. Today we will spend some time looking at a model or discussing as to how this
reaction tends to stop or slow down over a period of time?

826
(Refer Slide Time: 07:25)

Other characteristics that we can see from that graph of from that picture is that there is
an initial incubation period when no or very well expansion is seen followed by some
slow expansion then rapid expansion. And finally, a stoppage of the expansion after the
limiting value has been reached.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:44)

As for as implications are concerned we talked about additional strains in terms of the
strain in reinforcing steel and that something which we will again talk about today. Qe
will try to discuss a little more detail of that aspect and try to discuss certain the light that

827
alkali aggregate reaction in reinforced concrete is something similar to that of
introducing or inducing chemical pre stresses in the concrete. The cracking in the surface
concrete could promote ingress of deleterious material such as carbon dioxide a chlorides
into the concrete and the map cracking reduces the model of velocity of the concrete and
the strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:30)

Now, this here is a picture of or is a close up of another structure which is afflicted with
the destructive alkali silica reaction again from a pavement. And we can see that there is
this alkali silica gel in the 2 millimeter void in a laps splice from a pavement. The dark
aggregate which is shown here this aggregate the dark aggregate which is shown here is
a siltstone aggregate. So, this is the kind of gel that forms and gets deposited in the voids
within the concrete or if there are continues pores connecting into the surface, it also
immerges at the surface as we saw in the picture acouple of slights ago.

828
(Refer Slide Time: 09:29)

This here is another picture of alkali silica reaction in the pavement with the dark in
metabasalt aggregate. And we can see that around these aggregates, all these aggregates
here which are reactive we can see a very clean description of a carbonated gel. And this
is the gel that is formed on the rim of these aggregates and that what we were talking
about the previous discussion and also today earlier on.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:04)

The alkali aggregate reaction is usually very slow and proceeds through the processes
where the alkali in the pore solution permeates through the aggregates. And this

829
processes of permeation of alkali through the aggregates can be modeled as diffusion
process. Of course, the diffusion through the rock is not easy rocks are after all not all
that pores even though they are pores. So, the coefficient of diffusion in rocks is very
very small and therefore, it takes time for these reactive or deleterious alkali ions to
permeate through the rock. Once they have reach the rock or even once they have
reached the inside of rock, because break of the otherwise very stable silica bond. And
the logic of alkali metals in the inert silica tetrahedron along with the formation of
complex complexes. As we saw from the previous pictures the reaction really starts at
the surface and gradually proceeds inside.

So, basically we are looking at a processes which is starts at the surface, the reaction rim
is formed and gradually more and more alkali metal ions permeate through this reaction
rim and also the rock and attack or modify the silica tetrahedron deeper and deeper inside
the aggregate. Once these gels are formed on the surface or may be inside the aggregate
the absorb water from the pore solution again. And this leads to swelling and expansion
of these complexes and finally, cracking of the concrete on account of alkali silica
reaction. We must remember that water in concrete is available in plenty it could be the
water which is present from the time that it was mixed or cured or it could be
replenishment by way of rain water or any other form of water which is present. And
finally, of course, as we have seen there is a cracking in concrete due to the expansive
pressures.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:40)

830
Now, if we look at the simple model of aggregates where discuss this slide briefly in a
previous discussion. And we know recapitulate that discussion and put it in light with the
model that we have just talked about. We are looking at potassium and sodium ions in
the atmosphere or environment around aggregate. And if we take this aggregate to be
spherical, we can assume that as for as spherical aggregate is concerned in the
neighborhood we have sodium and potassium ions.

Now, initially the reaction takes place at the surface and we get reaction products that are
formed and are deposited on the surface. After that position as taken place for additional
surface to be attacked. If this reaction thickness of the thickness of the aggregate which
has been compromised or where the reaction as already taken place? And they aggregate
has undergone the alkali aggregate reaction, this part is still unreacted. So, basically at
each time step the reaction occurs at a fresh surface of are aggregate and the surface of
that reaction keep shifting inverts.

So, now over a period of time if the reaction products are dense enough then the
permeation of the sodium potassium ions through those reaction products would become
more and more difficult. Because the reaction products are being formed and are
deposited within the pore structure of the rocks which as it is have pretty low porosity.
As a result of which the reaction really ceases arguing this point slightly differently if we
have a reaction where A and B are reacting to form a product C when will be say or
when can we say that the reaction has stopped, either A should finish that there is no
more A or B should finish that there is no more B or the A and B should not be able to
come in contact with each other. And in that case even though that may be A or there
may be B, but there may still be no reaction.

So, in the case of alkali aggregate reaction kind of in the scenario like that of alkali
aggregate reaction, the situation translates to do we run out of reactive minerals in the
aggregate. The answer is pretty much no, because there are enough aggregates. And
therefore, enough reactive minerals within the concrete for the reaction to go on, do we
run out of alkali metals in the pore solution?

The answer could be yes or no depending on what is the amount of alkali which is
present in the pore solution to begin with. And that is related to the amount of alkali
present in the cement and the quantity of cement in the concrete. The third possibility

831
that 12, we still have reactive minerals; we still have alkali in the pore solution. But this
thickness has reached a level where it has made it very difficult close to impossible for
the fresh surface to be approached by the alkali present in the system. And that would be
the place when the reaction would seems. And this simple qualitative description is what
we can offer to explain, why the expansion of the alkali aggregate reaction follows an s
curve kind of a behavior? Initially when the sodium and potassium ions are permeating
this may take some time when the reaction picks up. And we gradually rate of reaction
increases, but at a certain point in time it ceases.

There is another characteristic depending on what they aggregate configuration is the

rate of reaction is very rapid initially. And that also can be built into our system or into
the model that we talked about when we say that initially the surface that initially the
surface area available is large. And the reaction proceeds rapidly, but as the reaction
proceeds its rate slows down as at becomes more and more difficult for the alkali ions to
diffuse into the aggregate and cast of bring about further reaction. So this kind of
discussion, we can summarized that the reaction ratio which is essentially are ratio of the
volume of aggregate which has been reacted with to the original volume of the aggregate
that would depend on parameters such as the diffusion coefficient k of the rock, a
concentration of the alkali C, the time and the size of the aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:49)

832
Would I get slightly differently extent of reaction and expansion in account of alkali
aggregate reaction can be looked upon as a complex function which is to the alkali
present that is the alkali content cement. The reactive silica present the surface area
available which governs the total concentration of alkali’s per surface area or the per unit
surface area of the coarse aggregate or the fine aggregate, the reactivity of the minerals
and they environmental conditions like temperature and humidity.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:23)

Now, let us try to discuss the issue of alkali aggregate reaction in reinforce concrete.
Before we get into the reinforce concrete and the discussion of alkali aggregate reaction
let me discuss a little, Before we continue our discussion with reinforced concrete and
alkali aggregate reaction in that concrete we will make a di gration. We will talk a little
bit about pre stressed concrete and we will soon see, what is the relevance of this? What
happens in pre stress concrete? If we take a beam which is supported like this and loaded
the weight is shown the beam sags like this and if we are able to have forces in the
reinforcement which are tensile. Then what we are basically doing is casting this beam to
hog without they action of external load. And if the beam gets into a hog position before
the application of load then once the load act this hogging tends to be balanced and that
is the method commonly used to overcome concretes weakness in tension.

833
(Refer Slide Time: 20:37)

And there are two basic methods of applying this pre stress when one is pre tensioning
and the other is post tensioning. Now in pre tensioning what is done is that we have a
still and we tension it we have these checks through which we poll this sill to a certain
location. And then we cast the concrete and once the concrete has been cast and it has
hardened, we cut the still tendons as result of which the beam tends to hog the weight is
shown.

So, basically what is going on is the fact that concrete if it was not reinforced would like
to go back to its original position which is something which is prevented by the presence
of steel. And since the degree of restrained at the top surface here is a smaller then the
degree of restrained at the bottom the beam tends to hog. And if this hogging is not
controlled we could have cracks initiating at the top the weight is shown here. Now, if
we look at the post tensioning system we cast the concrete without any steel. Then we
have a steel tendon which is inserted and a jack is used to introduce tension in the steel.
And the steel is allowed to go back to its original position using anchors. Now, once the
steel wants go back to its original position that is something which is resisted by the
presence of all these concrete here. As a result of that the situation is very similar to
something which is shown here the beams tends to again hog. Now as for as alkali
aggregate reaction and the reinforced concrete is concerned the situation is something
similar.

834
(Refer Slide Time: 22:51)

Now, the situation in the case of alkali aggregate reaction in reinforced concrete is
something similar. Once the concrete expands on account of alkali aggregate reaction,
this expansion is resisted by the presence of the reinforcement. If these reinforcement
was centrally placed then all that will happen is the amount of expansion would be
reduced compare to the amount of expansion that would take place in plain concrete. But
we know that in concrete members particularly beams and slabs, the reinforcement at the
bottom is more than at the top in a normal simply supported cases and so on.

Apart from cantilevers where the situation is reversed, but not getting into that detail the
fact remains that the degree of strained to de expansion is higher where the
reinforcement is higher. And that is what would cause a situation which is close to this
there would be an additional strain in the reinforcement and they would be a hogging as
for as concrete is concerned. Therefore, now we know that as for as the pretest concrete
is concerned the pre stress is introduced in the concrete when we cause stresses in the
steel and those stresses in the steel in the transferred to the concrete. In the case of alkali
aggregate reaction in reinforcement concrete there stresses a generated on account of
expansion of the concrete and transferred to the steel.

The net result is still the same hogging of a simple RCP and that is something which we
must keep in mind. When we try to study the strains that are formed in the steel on
account of alkali aggregate reaction, something very, very similar would follow in a

835
normal concrete. If we were to introduce chemicals in the concrete which cause
expansion and that is what is called chemical pre stressing. In chemical pre stressing, we
introduce a expansion in the concrete through the presence of some chemicals. And that
expansion in concrete is again registered by the reinforcement present and we get a more
or less similar situation as we get a pre stress concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:44)

With this now we come to the last part of the discussion on alkali aggregate reaction
which deals with count a measures against this phenomenon or this mechanism of
deterioration as for as new structures or new construction is concerned. We will try to
deal with this problem of count a measures against the alkali aggregate reaction at two
levels. One is for new structures where we can more or less takes steps to ensure that the
effects of alkali aggregate reaction are kept a minimum the deleterious effect is
minimized. And that in the case of existing structures where in advertently reactive
aggregates where used and there is a problem of alkali aggregate reaction. So, as for as
new construction is concerned if we revise over fundamentals alkali in concrete and
reactive aggregate gives you reactive material and that is this thing which we need to
control, So, the options that we have are very limited as for as alkali is concerned
reduction of a alkali in concrete is more or less be only option that we have.

If we are able to control or we are able to reduce the amount of alkali in the concrete we
have come the problem of alkali aggregate reaction or will be simply eliminate reactive

836
aggregates from use. Now, this is something which is easier set them done we have
talked about it earlier that the choice of aggregates is not something which in engineer is
completely free to make at least from the point of view of economics, aggregates in a
particular region may be reactive. And therefore, it implies that all concrete in that region
which uses aggregates from that core here that particular area would finally, have
reactive concrete unless we are taking measures to control the reaction it may not be
always economically possible.

But that is the only choice that I have is in engineer as for as reduction of alkali in the
concrete is concerned. We have the option of using low alkali cement using add
mixtures, we will try to see that in movement, as for as the elimination of reactive
aggregates is concerned, we can use these methods to evaluate the reactivity of the
aggregates, and finally of course, use non reactive aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:32)

Using non reactive aggregates is perhaps the best option that gets rid of the problem at
the route itself mixing reactive a non reactive aggregates. Now, this is a very interesting
option that immerges as a compromise between economics and technical understanding
or technology. If we have the constrained of having to use reactive aggregates for having
to use aggregate s available in the neighborhood which is reactive, can we mix some part
of it with non reactive aggregates which may be brought from a which we need to be
brought from a greater distance. And what will be the impact of that mixing on the

837
ultimate expansion? That something which we need to study, but that is in option which
is worth exploring, controlling the alkali content in concrete. Now, this can be done
using low alkali cement and just two recapitulate, what is low alkali cement? Low alkali
cement is defined in terms of the N a 2 O equivalent of the cement and that is nothing but
the N a 2 O that is present in the cement plus 0.658 times the K 2 O that is the potassium
oxide.

So, the sodium oxide and certain fraction of the potassium oxide contribute to define
what can be called the equivalent N a 2 O in a cement. Now, once we have this number
is specification as far as cement is concerned. Define a low alkali cement as something
as a or as a cement which has less than, let us a 0.6 percent of equivalent N a 2 O 0.7
percent equivalent N a 2 O and so on. We could use supplementary cementitious
materials as a substitute for some part of the ordinary portland cement we could control
cement content.

So, the basically the bottom line as for as all these methods is concerned is the following
we have concrete which has a certain amount of cement let us say 300 k g’s. And this
cement let say has 1 percent of equivalent N a 2 O as for as this concrete is concerned.
This concrete now has 3 kg’s of equivalent N a 2 O per cubic meter of that concrete
inverter to control these 3 kg’s per cubic meter of equivalent N a 2 O. We can use any of
these options, if we are using a low alkali cement what we are doing is that instead of
this 1 percent. If we use a cement which has 0.5 percent of equivalent N a 2 O we would
have reduced this 3 kg to 1.5 kg. Similarly, if we were to use supplementary
cementitious materials whether it is blast furnace slag or it is silica few or it is rise has
cash or it is fly hash, what we are doing is instead of this 300 k g we are able to reduce it
250 kg or 200 kg by that token even if my equivalent N a 2 O remains at 1 percent.

838
(Refer Slide Time: 32:30)

Now, let us look at the option of using supplementary cementitious materials, going back
to the previous example when we said that my N a 2 O is 1 percent, my unit cement
content was 300 kg’s in a cubic meter of concrete. If I am using supplementary
cementitious materials which allow me to reduce this cement content to say 200 kg’s
then even if my equivalent sodium oxide content remains at 1 percent. My total alkali
content in the concrete would only be 2 kg’s per cubic meter instead of the 3 kg per
cubic meter that I had if I was using 300 kg’s per cubic meter of cement. Now, how is
controlling cement content different from using supplementary cementitious material.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:29)

839
It is different in the sense that in the previous example we said that instead of 300 kg’s of
cement we will use 200 kg’s of cement plus another 100 kg’s equivalent of cement in
terms of fly hash or slag or any other supplementary cementitious material. When I talk
of controlling cement content here what I am saying or what the engineer wants to do is
to reduce the cement content required instead of 300 we reduce the cement content
require to lets a 250 kg’s, how do we do that? We do that by using let us say chemical
mixtures that is we go back a step further and say that if the water demand that I have for
a certain workability was 200 kg’s. And the water cement ratio that we needed was let
say 50 percent, my cement content require they are would be 400 kg’s. But if I am able
to reduce my water demand from 200 kg’s to let say 100 and 80 kg’s to let say at the
same water cement ratio I will use only 360 kg’s of cement.

Basically this is the cement reduction that we are talking about, controlling the cement
content that is we are trying to reduce the cement used. In this discussion here we are not
really reducing the cement content we are reducing OPC content alright. But we are not
reducing the equivalent cement content when we are talking of controlling the cement
content here what we are talking about is the reductioning the equivalent cement content
itself without using mineral add mixtures. In this side we are using mineral add mixtures,
in these side we are not using mineral ad mixtures and at we are able to get the same
result, we are able to reduce our cement consumption where able to reduce our cement
content in the concrete. And finally, we have the option of preventing the structure from
coming in contact with water. We discussed earlier that the gel may be allow to form, but
it is the expansion of the gel which has to be prevented and that can be done. If we
effectively prevent this structure from coming in contact with water, it may be possible
in certain cases it may not be possible in certain cases, but that surely is an option which
is available to the engineer.

840
(Refer Slide Time: 36:20)

Now, coming to the count a measures against alkali aggregate reaction in existing
structures. All that we can do is to try and control this part because the reacted material is
already within the concrete the potential to form reacted material is already within the
concrete. We can change the aggregates there we cannot remove the alkali within the
concrete. And therefore, all that we can do is prevent water permeation and that we can
try to do by applying a coating on the concrete surface. And that is an option which is
available even in fresh construction in a new construction. We can try to apply a coating
on the surface of concrete which will prevent ingress of water into concrete if we are
able to do that fine. But that is more or less the only option that is available to control
alkali aggregate reaction in a existing structure.

841
(Refer Slide Time: 37:23)

In this context we must also remember that as for as the coatings is concerned there often
having resins in them. These resins tend to deteriorate due to the ultra violet rays and
when they are exposed to sunlight for long periods of time, surface portions of the resins
tends to spalls off and reduces the thickness. So, if we are using coatings we should be
also concerned about the durability of the coating itself in terms of its ability to with
stand ultra violet radiation, we talked about the option of mixing reactive and non-
reactive aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:11)

842
This here is a picture of what is the likely expansion that we get if we vary the reactive
aggregate ratio from let us say 0, 200 percent that is we do not use any reactive
aggregate. And still will get some amount of expansion for different reasons and using
100 percent of the reactive aggregates. We must remember that we get what is called the
pessimim content? The pessimim is opposite of optimum, because that something which
we do not really want. The pessimim content is the content of reactive aggregates where
we expansion is maximum where we get even more expansion. Then what we would get
if the reactive aggregates were to be used only that is only the reactive aggregates were
to be used.

We get this kind of an expansion here, but if only a small amount of non reactive
aggregates were to be mixed the expansion would be higher. This is something which
should be loss site of if we are choosing to mix reactive and non reactive aggregates,
because mixing non reactive aggregates does not necessary or may not necessarily bring
about reduction in the total expansion. If we try to do a numerical model, we would
understand this in terms of how the amount of alkali available in the concrete changes as
the surface area of the reactive aggregates changes. As the reactive surface area reduces
and that is what will happen if you use some amount non reactive aggregates without
changing the amount of alkali they concentration available for the attack on the reactive
minerals would be larger.

And therefore, the reaction would tend to on the reactive minerals would be larger. And
therefore, the reaction would tend to cause more expansion however if at the end of it the
reactive area becomes smaller than a certain value then it is not enough to be able to
cause as much expansion. If the reactive aggregate surface area was to reduce below or
certain value. Then of course, the phenomenon changes and the total expansion is now
being governed by the surface area available and not the concentration of the alkali per
surface area which is governing in the case when the surface area was the reduced in the
initial part that is here. Now with this become to our close of the discussion and as we
usually close.

843
(Refer Slide Time: 41:16)

We can do some more work and study a little bit about chemical pre stressing. And that
is what we talked about in our discussion today. We can talk about or study more about
the porosity in the mineralogy of rocks which will give us a better understanding of the
alkali aggregate reaction itself. We can study the core is in our neighborhood and the
properties of the aggregates there. We could look at the maps of different regions of the
world which have been identified as producing reactive aggregates.

We could study the research material which is available on topics such as the alkali
aggregate reaction and reinforced concrete use of course to identify the remaining
expansion in a 16 structures and study the expansion on account of AAR with difference
cementitious mixes. And that is the kind of discussion which we were doing or which is
relevant from the point of view of controlling the expansion on account of alkali
aggregate reaction by manipulating the cement content or the alkali content in the
cement, controlling the cement content, using chemical ad mixtures or mineral ad
mixtures to control the overall alkali content in the concrete. And with this we conclude
our discussion for today.

Thank you.

844
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 26
Reinforcement corrosion in concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

[FL], and welcome back to another lecture in this series of concrete engineering in
technology. As we have been talking the subject is acquiring tremendous significance as
we continue to use more and more concrete in diverse conditions, and with the lot of
materials. We have also now got a lot of experience from previously built structures in
different environments. And know how those structures have behaved structurally and
also from the point of view of materials, the kind of degradation that we have seen, the
kind of deterioration we have seen.

We also have some experience now with maintenance and repair rehabilitation of
concrete structures. And we have realized that concrete is not a maintenance for a
material. Depending on the environment that the concrete structure is in, the concrete of
the structure undergoes certain changes it may deteriorate. And that is what we need to
study, there is a rising concern now on the quality and the durability of concrete
construction.

845
(Refer Slide Time: 01:31)

All this has lead to increased awareness and calls upon the concrete engineers to know
something about deterioration durability and so on. This course aims at revising the basic
principles underlying concrete science and engineering, develop a framework which
helps us understand the present day scenario in concrete engineering. And we are trying
to go through special issues in what we can call special concretes, the quality control and
testing. We have talked about high performance concrete and also performance based
thinking durability and maintenance of concrete structures that is what we are doing
now.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:16)

846
(Refer Slide Time: 02:29)

(Refer Slide Time: 02:46)

This slide is familiar to you and outlines the different subjects that we are dealing with in
this course. Now, having gone through a little bit of background in durability studies in
the larger sense of the word, we will now commence our discussion on some
mechanisms of deterioration in concrete. And what we will talk about is reinforcement
corrosion in concrete, alkali aggregate reaction, freezing and thawing, chloride
penetration and concrete and carbonation of concrete.

847
Chloride penetration and carbonation are not necessarily causes for deterioration of
concrete parse. But they play a very important role in inducing reinforcement corrosion
in concrete. We know that reinforcing bars are an integral part of any reinforce concrete
construction. And what we are going to study today is how they deteriorate, what is a
mechanism and so on. And we will study the importance of chloride penetration and
carbonation as a part of the discussion in this course.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:37)

(Refer Slide Time: 03:41)

848
So, beginning our discussion with the reinforcement corrosion in concrete we will go
through some kind of introduction background, develop the kind of framework that we
need to have. We will talk a little bit about the mechanism of corrosion in concrete, what
is the science of corrosion? We will talk of formation of corrosion induced cracks.

Most of us know that corrosion in the reinforced concrete structures becomes an issue
only when we see some cracks on the surface or we see signs of rust deposits on the
concrete surface. And how these cracks are formed is what we will study today. Then
there are other things like chloride diffusion and carbonation in concrete, design of
corrosion prone structures, preventive measures and monitoring methods and
rehabilitation of deteriorated structures. So, this part, we will cover at a later date are
concentration today will be on these 3 subjects.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:57)

Coming to the introduction and background let us go back to this picture that we saw
early in the course. This is a view of reinforce concrete, we have a steel bar embedded in
concrete. This is how we have most of our reinforce concrete structures whether it is
beam or a slab or a column or a wall, whatever it is we can always understand or imagine
or model that reinforcing bar is embedded in concrete. And that is something which we
must keep at the back of our mind. Also we have seen this picture earlier where we say
that as far as the concrete is concerned it is nothing but aggregates suspended in mortar.
And if we look at a small element here in the mortar or the paste phase, what we see here

849
is the grey area here, we can say is solid hydration products. And these are the pore
spaces, depending on the kind of concrete that we have water cement ratio that we have
used and so on.

The amount of pores in the concrete will vary and we have seen that when we discussed
the hydration of cement. The kind of hydration products that are formed, what is the
amount of hydration products formed and so on? Those are an important ingredient in
our determination or in our understanding of how durable the concrete is? Coming with
that this picture here shows what is called the transition zone, what we have here is at the
bottom of the aggregates, coarse aggregates more. So, then fine aggregates there is a
small very fine, very thin layer of hydration products where the water cement ratio is
much higher than in the main body of the paste. So, basically what we are saying is that
as we have the aggregate here we have the main body of the cement paste here in
between this is a transition zone where the water cement ratio is much higher. That is this
transition zone provides an easier access to the deleterious materials travelling through
concrete.

Another thing which we must remember from this diagram is that as far as this steel bar
is concerned it is exposed or it is embedded in concrete. And therefore, the environment
around the steel bar is that of concrete and there are lots of these pores and pore spaces in
contact with the reinforcement bar. And what is the characteristics of these pores? What
is that pore space filled with? All these things become very important in our
understanding of how chemically or electrochemically to be precise the reinforcing steel
behaves from the point of view of corrosion.

850
(Refer Slide Time: 08:20)

As far as corrosion is concerned, what is the most fundamental understanding? We all

know that corrosion basically means the conversion of iron to its oxides and hydroxides
in the presence of oxygen and water. Of course, these are only two of the corrosion
products that are formed there can be any number of hydroxides and oxides depending
on how exactly the corrosion reaction proceeds, how much oxygen is there, how much
water is there, what is the temperature and so on and so forth? Now, having said that we
know that iron left in the atmosphere corrodes easily, we just leave a steel bar in the
atmosphere. And very soon we will find a layer of corrosion product deposited on the
surface of the steel bar.

However, corrosion of reinforcement and concrete is not so common even though

oxygen and water are both available. If we go back to the picture that we had that we had
concrete and a steel bar embedded in it there is no dearth of oxygen and water in this
environment. Oxygen is present in plenty given that there are lot of pore spaces, water is
also abundantly available, because concrete to begin with had a lot of water. And even
after the hydration reaction as taken place some amount of water still remains further
depending on the environment in which the concrete is there could be a rain there could
be marine structure or whatever which will cause the concrete to be saturated with water
that is the pore space in the concrete is filled with water. So, there is no dearth of oxygen
and water, but corrosion is not a rampant phenomenon even though we see reasonable

851
amount of corrosion in certain cases, but in most cases we do not see corrosion. So, we
must understand as to why that happens.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:32).

So, let us look at concrete environment that is the environment of the reinforcing bar just
around the reinforcing bar more closely. The actual composition of the pore solution
depends on the constitution of the cement used, but in principle the environment has a
very high p H. The hydroxyl ions coming from the calcium hydroxide formed during
cement hydration, the p H in concrete is reported to be in the access of 12 or 13.

We saw the when we saw the hydration reactions, we saw that whether it is the hydration
of C 3 S C 2 S C 3 A or C 4 F of any phase of cement when it hydrates leads to the
formation of hydration products and a lot of calcium hydroxide. So, this calcium
hydroxide when it is deposited within the pore system it dissociates into calcium and
hydroxyl ions. And these hydroxyl ions cause the p H to be in access of 12 or 13. So, in
principle the bars reinforcing bars are in environment which is extremely basic. Now,
though the pores have different sizes that allow material transport.

So the kind of pores that we have around the reinforcing bars they could be of different
sizes and that and they allow material transport whether it is carbon dioxide or chloride
or any other deleterious material. Regardless of the assumptions made for homogeneity
there are concentration gradients presence of aggregates of different sizes and so on. So
in principle concrete is homogeneous only macroscopically when a designer sells that the

852
concrete has a strength of 20 m p a 25 m p a. It is assumed that that is the strength of
concrete across the structure or across the member. Even though there is macroscopically
true as far as the microscopic properties are concerned if we look at one location of the
reinforcing bar to another location of the reinforcing bar there concrete is definitely not a
homogeneous material.

There are reasons to believe that if we have a reinforcing bar like this which is embedded
in concrete. Then electro chemical environment here which is let us say A and the electro
chemical environment here could be different, because it is possible that there is an
aggregate sitting here and that aggregate changes the microscopic environment around
here. And therefore, concrete is only macroscopically homogeneous and microscopically
highly heterogeneous. And there could be concentration gradients, that is in terms of let
us say the concentration of dissolve oxygen the concentration of hydroxyl ions and so on.
So, reinforcing bars in concrete are in an environment which is characterized by a high p
H and is highly heterogeneous once we keep that in mind our discussion as far as
corrosion is concerned becomes a lot easier.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:58)

Now, here is another picture of iron and concrete. So, this is the environment that is on
this side of the reinforcement concretes, on this side of the reinforced concrete structure.
We have the environment. This environment could be air or it could be water that is what
will happen if the reinforced concrete structure is submerged in water or is the water

853
retaining structure and so on. This side is the main concrete and here we have the
reinforcing bar. Now, there is something called a passivating film that is shown here the
passivating film is here. This is the passivating film the blue one, without getting into the
electrochemistry involved or the science majorly involved I would like you to take it for
granted though those of you who though those of you who want to find out are
encouraged to find out more about this part.

In the high p H environment a dense film of gamma iron oxide which acts as a
passivating film is formed on the surface. So, what it says is that this steel bar that we
have that is the brown one, once it is embedded in concrete which has a high p H
environment, because of electro chemical reasons a very dense film of gamma iron oxide
forms on the surface of the steel. And this film essentially prevents a direct contact
between the oxygen and water that are present in the concrete whether it is in the min
body concrete or it is in the cover concrete and the reinforcing bar itself. And so long as
there is no direct contact between the oxygen and water and the reinforcing bar we will
have a very little chance of corrosion happening.

So, as long as this film is intact, the iron surface is not open to reaction with the oxygen
and water and the iron embedded in concrete does not corrode. So, this basically gives
the answer the question that we do not see corrosion in a lot of concrete structures or in
lot of reinforced concrete structures. It is because the dense passivating film of gamma
iron oxide prevents a direct contact of the iron surface to the oxygen and water that
people present in the concrete.

854
(Refer Slide Time: 16:44)

It stands to reason therefore, that reinforcement corrosion in concrete can happen under
two conditions. One case with the passivating film is damaged and the other is a situation
where the electrochemical environment of the steel changes in a manner that the film is
no longer enable. So, the film is formed basically, because the environment is highly
alkaline it has a very high p H. And now if the p H somehow reduces for whatever
reason then the passivating film is no longer thermodynamically enable it is no longer
stable. And once the passivating film is either lost on account of this kind of a change in
the electrochemical environment of the bar or it is damaged for some reason. Then the
surface of the reinforcement is exposed to the oxygen and water action which is present
in concrete and we have the onset of corrosion.

Now as far as these two mechanisms are concerned, damage to the passivating film is
caused by chloride ions. These chloride ions cause damage to the passivating film
without changing the electrochemical environment. We shall see a model description of
what this means and as far as the in case of carbon dioxide is concerned through the
pores and it is reaction with calcium hydroxide causes the reduction in p H. So, the p H
is high, because there is a lot of calcium hydroxide in the system. As carbon dioxide goes
into the system penetrates into concrete it reacts with the calcium hydroxide as given
here calcium hydroxide and carbon dioxide they react to give calcium carbonates and
calcium bicarbonates and some amount of water.

855
So, once these calcium carbonates and bicarbonates are formed we have lost calcium
hydroxide. And if this loss of calcium hydroxide occurs to an extent that the amount of
hydroxyl ions required to sustain high p H, to sustain the passivating film. Then the
passivating film is lost it is thermodynamically unstable.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:17)

So, now summarizing the, the reinforcement corrosion in reinforced concrete can be
chloride induced or it can be carbonation induced, what it means is let us in the case of
chloride induced corrosion. We will have a damage to the passivating film without
change in the electrochemical environment. In the carbonation induced corrosion we will
have a change in the electrochemical environment of the reinforcing bar and therefore,
the passivating film will simply become unstable.

856
(Refer Slide Time: 20:03)

Now, this is what we will see as we go along in our discussion today. Let us look at
chloride induced reinforcement corrosion. This is a schematic sketch of what is going on,
we have the steel bar and we have a chloride rich environment it could be marine
environment and so on. And if it is a marine environment what really happens is that this
chlorides form these chlorides find their way into the concrete, because the concrete is
after all porous.

So, only the amount of porosity that is different from one concrete to another and as
these chlorides move into the concrete gradually they reach the reinforcing bar. And
once they reach the reinforcing bar again without going into the science are being very
rigorous in the treatment of the subject. We can assume or let us take it for granted that
once the chlorides reach the reinforcing bars and are present in a certain critical
concentration. They will cause this kind of a disruption in the passivating film. And once
this kind of disruption happens the small areas of the reinforcing bar are directly exposed
to the oxygen and water in the concrete.

So, we have a damaged passivating film a cover concrete which is contaminated with
chloride ions of course, part of the passivating film can remain completely undamaged.
And there is no reason for the damage to be uniform across the reinforcement bar there is
also possibility that the chlorides may be present in the concrete to begin with. And that
is what happens when we are trying to use sea sand in the construction in which case the

857
chlorides are initially present. And that is something which could be deleterious from the
point of view of reinforcement corrosion, because they will cause damage in the
passivating film in the initial stages itself.

Now, as far as carbonation induced reinforcement corrosion is concerned what is

happening is that carbon dioxide from the air moves into the concrete and reacts with the
calcium hydroxide present there as we saw earlier. And we have carbonates and
bicarbonates deposited in the concrete, but there is consumption of calcium hydroxide.
And the, if there is consumption of calcium hydroxide we can assume that there is a
lowering of the p H in the cover concrete. And what we call this region is carbonated
cover concrete this process of ingress of carbon dioxide into concrete is called
carbonation. And we have the carbonated cover concrete and if the extent of this p H
lowering reaches a level at the reinforcing bar that the passivating film is no longer
thermodynamically stable. We have a destabilized passivating film that is a passivating
film as simply vanished. And this entire surface of reinforcement is susceptible to
corrosion in the presence of oxygen and water which may be present in the concrete.

Of course, like in the case of chloride induced corrosion it is possible that parts of the
passivating film may be completely impact. And that is what is caused by the
microscopic heterogeneity in the concrete I would also like you to remember that this
scale is not at all true that is the thickness of this passivating film is nowhere near the
thickness of the reinforcing bar thickness of this passivating film is at best a few
microns. But it is so dense that it actually prevents the contact of oxygen and water and
the reinforcement surface. So, this scale is not true and it is not that there is a major layer
or very thick layer of the passivating film.

858
(Refer Slide Time: 24:32)

Now, let us look at a summary of the reinforcement corrosion in concrete. As far as

chlorides in concrete are concerned they could be coming from the construction
materials I mention that if we are using for example, sea sand or a chloride present in the
chemical admixtures. Then in the very first place, we have introduced chlorides in the
system in the concrete and they could become an deleterious from the point of view of
reinforcement corrosion in concrete sand water or admixture. In the case of marine
structures it could be offshore structures ports and harbors and structures near a
coastline.

All these structures are susceptible to chloride ingress, because of the sea water, the sea
water present as such or may be even salt which is carried by air and deposited on
concrete surfaces at a certain distance from the coastline. Then there are structures where
we use deicing salts in cold areas for example, highways and bridges parking structures
what happens is that in regions which have a very, very heavy snow fall. Then in order to
keep the highways open for movement deicing salts are spread on to the concrete surface
or on the highway.

And this salt which is paid finds its way into the concrete structures and is just like any
other chloride it causes a disruption in the passivating film. Also the cards that move on
these highways in their tires and on their underside they carry the salt water. And once
your parking them in a parking garage then they drip and parking garages and the

859
parking garages are also susceptible to the action of deicing salts or salt action is as far as
chloride penetration and finally reinforcement corrosion is concerned. As far as
carbonation is concerned the ingress of carbon dioxide and the consumption of calcium
hydroxide from the atmosphere occurs in all structures of the atmosphere. If the extent of
penetration is such that the p H in the neighborhood of the reinforcement is reduced
below a critical level the passivating film is rendered unstable

(Refer Slide Time: 27:15)

(Refer Slide Time: 27:22)

860
Now, let us try to take a closer look at the mechanism of corrosion and concrete. We
know that there is a damage to the passivating film by chloride ions setting a potential
anodic sites. Now, what are these anodic sites? Anodic sites are those where the loss of
iron occurs we also have the setting up of a corrosion current. Please remember that at
the end of it corrosion is an electrochemical process it involves setting up of anodes and
cathodes. And the passage of a corrosion current between the anodes and cathodes and
the concrete really serves as an electrolyte as we can see here. So, we have this is
concrete and this current is passing through the concrete and concrete is acting as an
electrolyte. As far as chemical reactions are concerned iron is going to the iron ions and
release of electrons at the anode and oxygen and water in the consume the electron to
form hydroxyl ions at the cathode. Now, once this is happening then between the anode
and the cathode there is this corrosion current which is set up and we have propagating
reinforcement corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:51)

This is what we had seen is the reactions iron going to iron ions and two electrons being
released at the anode. The electrons being consumed in the presence of oxygen and water
to form hydroxyl ions in the cathode and over all what we are has seeing is that iron
oxygen and water gives us some kind of hydrate some kind of a corrosion product.

So, if we look at this picture once again what is happening is there is an anodic site
where we have the iron is going into solution that is iron is getting converted to iron ions.

861
And at the cathodic sites the hydroxyl ions are formed and these kind of move within the
concrete. So, this corrosion currents which are set up between the anode and the cathode
are a very critical part of our study of reinforcement corrosion, concrete in number serves
as an electrolyte in the corrosion process. So, if this concrete which is serving as an
electrolyte in a corrosion process has a very high resistance then it will not allow free
passage or it will offer a greater resistance to the passage of these corrosion currents.
And we could control the extent of corrosion or the rate of corrosion and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:24)

Now, if we look at this picture once again the keywords really are corrosion current or
corrosion density or the current density there is an area of the anode involved there is an
area of the cathode involved. And there is a ratio of the area of the anode to the area of
cathode. That is if this ratio was very small or very large that will alter the rate at which
the corrosion currents are flowing, resistivity of the concrete which acts as an electrolyte.
There is discussion in literature on microcell versus macro cell corrosion. Now you can
imagine what microcell macro cell is.

Microcell refers to a situation where the anode and the cathode are very close to each
other. And they could even be interchangeable that for a certain amount of time, a certain
area acts as an anode the corrosion there being supported by the neighboring areas in
terms of the cathode. And after certain time something else happens the electrochemical
environment changes and that area becomes a cathode to some other anode. So, this is

862
happening in the microcell corrosion where the anodes in the cathodes are very closely
spaced, whereas in a macro cell corrosion the anode and the cathode are very different
are at especially different locations. And it is easy to find out which area of the cathode
or which area is acting as a cathode to support or sustain the corrosion at a particular
anodic area.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:11)

As far as the corrosion mechanism is concerned we are reiterating that there is a

damaged passivating film. There is loss of iron, because once the iron is gone to F e 2
plus and electrons are released and this goes and gets converted to F e O H 2 and so on.
Effectively the amount there is a loss in the iron and this is effectively there is loss of
iron in the reinforcing bar. And we recall that corrosion current and the loss of iron is
something which we can study using the Faraday’s laws that is we have delta m is equal
to Zit.

Now, without getting into the complexities of these equations let us proceed and say that
the corrosion can be local or general local is a corrosion where the corrosion is localized.
And a lot of corrosion takes place at a relatively smaller area that is the anode has a very
small size, whereas general corrosion means that the corrosion is spread over the entire
reinforcement or the entire reinforcing system.

863
(Refer Slide Time: 33:33)

When there is loss of metal over a limited area the corrosion is called local, whereas if it
occurs over larger area the phenomenon is called general corrosion. In fact, for a given
loss of metal the depth of corrosion is higher in local corrosion, whereas it is much
smaller. In the case of general corrosion what we are really saying is that if we have a
reinforcing bar like this and a certain amount of delta m has to occur here. That is a
certain amount of total corrosion is involved. Then if this corrosion occurs over a very
small area and the rest of the bar does not get affected by the corrosion process. Then
this here represents the loss in thickness of the bar. And therefore, if the corrosion is
local, this depth of corrosion is very large.

Whereas in another system where for the same reinforcing bar and the same loss in
weight for the iron in terms of the total corrosion. If it was distributed over a very large
area the corrosion, the loss in thickness of the reinforcement will be very small. This is
something which we must keep in mind that at the end of it the loss of matter or the loss
of material that is a loss of iron actually translates to a loss in thickness. The thickness
becomes smaller if we have a 16 m m bar and the corrosion occurs in a manner that the
diameter of the bar is reduced by 1 m m that is an extreme case then the bar will remains
only 15 m m in diameter.

864
(Refer Slide Time: 35:23)

Now, let us look at the resistivity of concrete which is another important controlling
parameter as far as the reinforcement corrosion is concerned. This here is the schematic
representation of resistivity versus level of saturation and the water cement ratio. So, the
resistivity which is the specific property of concrete depends on the level of saturation
that is if the concrete was saturated with water. Then the resistivity will be very small
and the same concrete if it was try it will give you a very large resistivity.

Whereas of course, it also depends on the water cement ratio that is if the concrete had a
high water cement ratio that is it had more pores. Then we will have lower resistivity, but
primarily it is been it is suggested in literature that the level of saturation is a very
important parameter as far as the resistivity of concrete is concerned and that is
something which we must remember. For example in the case of as can be seen in this
picture the resistivity is related to the porosity of the matrix which is depending on the
characteristics of cement and the pore solution and also on the level of saturation of the
pores. Now, we must relate this to the, to the chloride induced and carbonation induced
corrosion.

In the case of chloride induced corrosion most likely the concrete is in a marine
environment or a deicing salt environment and so on. And there the concrete is likely to
be saturated with water a lot of times. And therefore, we are working with the system or
we are likely to work with the system where the resistivity of the concrete is very low. In

865
contrast to this as far as carbonation induced corrosion is concerned that occurs in the
atmosphere and there it is quite likely that the concrete is not highly saturated with water.
And therefore, we are working with a concrete system which is low on saturation and
therefore, has a relatively higher resistivity. So that is how we relate the importance of
resistivity of concrete to chloride induced or carbonation induced corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:59)

(Refer Slide Time: 38:06)

Continuing our discussion, let us talk in terms of formation of corrosion induced cracks
what causes these cracks. Now, this is a schematic representation of water reinforcement

866
corrosion is all about. We have a bar and we have these corrosion products the oxides
and the hydroxides being deposited around the bars. It could be in a small part of the bar
or it could be all around the bar depending on what kind of corrosion we are talking
about.

Now, as far as the relative volumes of these corrosion products is concerned it is known
that compare to iron which is the material which is being lost. These corrosion products
have a much higher volume it could be from one and a half to 2 times to about 5 to 6
times, depending on what kind of corrosion products are formed when that in turn
depend on how much is the oxygen or water availability and so on. So, now as a result of
this understanding where we have seen that the loss of iron is accompanied by formation
and deposition of larger volume corrosion products.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:24)

What we really have is corrosion products being more voluminous than the parent metal
and their formation and deposition on the reinforcing bar. And they have their own
properties in terms of the modulus of elasticity and poisson’s ratio and so on composition
depending on the local micros environment we have concrete being subjected to internal
expansive pressure. So, the formation of these corrosion products which have a higher
volume cause the concrete surrounding the reinforcing bar to be subjected to internal
expansive pressures. And when the pressure exceeds and when the pressure exceeds a
critical amount these longitudinal cracks are formed.

867
(Refer Slide Time: 40:12)

(Refer Slide Time: 40:34)

Now, let us look at what is happening, this is what is the cover and there is a reinforcing
bar here and if this reinforcing bar was to corrode and a corrosion products were
deposited around here. And these corrosion products had a higher volume than the parent
metal. Then if we model this, this rust which is deposited here is subjected to confining
pressure from the surrounding concrete. And the concrete on the other hand is subjected
to internal expansive pressure. So, basically as this bar here corrodes, what we have is a
system where if we draw the free body diagrams of the reinforcing bar and the

868
surrounding concrete. The reinforcing bar is subjected to confining pressures from the
surrounding concrete and the concrete itself is subjected to expansive internal pressures.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:27)

(Refer Slide Time: 41:53)

And once these pressures exceed the certain amount and that is what is shown here. This
picture here assumes that the corrosion is uniform that is all around the reinforcing bar.
We have certain amount of expansive pressure which depends on the amount and the
properties of corrosion products, the displacement in concrete which is itself related to
the strength and the properties of concrete. What we really have is once this stress here in

869
the concrete exceeds the tensile strength of concrete. We have the onset of a crack and
this crack quickly reaches the surface. And what we have here at the surface is the
appearance of a crack which runs along the structure that is along the reinforcing bar
when the expansive pressure exceeds a critical limit cracks along the bar are formed.
And this critical limit depends on various parameters including the cover the diameter of
the bar the properties of concrete strength creep modulus of elasticity and so on.

And it is also related the critical corrosion in terms of loss of iron. And let us go back to
this picture; obviously, if we increase the amount of cover that is we increase this
thickness. Then the amount of pressure or the radial expansive pressure that the concrete
will be able to take were possibly go up which means that that particular system with the
increased cover will be able to sustain a higher amount of corrosion before we have the
onset of longitudinal cracks.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:18)

870
(Refer Slide Time: 43:41)

And this is what is happening as far as the previous picture is concerned. As far as the
surrounding concrete is concerned, we have this corrosion induced crack, once this
pressure exceeds a certain critical p max which the concrete can sustain depending on its
properties in terms of strength and so on. Now, let us take an example as to what is
happening as far in a column if we have this as a cross section of the column with these
reinforcing bars. It is likely that we will have we will see the onset of corrosion cracks
around these reinforcing bars something like. And these points being closest to the
surface we will see the onset of corrosion cracks at these points assuming of course, that
all the 4 bars are corroding uniformly.

And in the longer section, we will have this as a corrosion crack along the reinforcing bar
it is not necessary that it will run continuously it is possible that it may be in certain
places you may have a crack then not have a crack and so on. So, this portion here need
not be corroding and therefore, it is only and therefore, it is only a matter of
understanding that yes once corrosion occurs the cracks are formed along the reinforcing
bars here. We have a reinforced concrete column with corrosion induced longitudinal
cracks along the reinforcement and such cracks once formed provide easy access to
deleterious material from the outside and this further accelerates the corrosion process.

Because once this corrosion cracks are formed whatever is available in the atmosphere
whether it is carbon dioxide or chlorides and so on. They find a much easier access to the

871
reinforcing bar. And no matter what the properties of this concrete are the access is really
gets governed by the width of these corrosion induced cracks. And we have an
accelerated corrosion process after these corrosion induced longitudinal cracks are
formed.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:37)

This is another example of how the cracking continues to effect the reinforced concrete
structure, we have a situation where if these two cracks are formed. Then this part of
concrete becomes loose and falls off and that is what is called spalling that is the
concrete from the structure becomes loose and falls of exposing the reinforcing exposing
the reinforcement. So, this is spalling can happen in different ways it can happen in a
corner, it can happen in a situation like this where two cracks are formed along the bar.
And this portion becomes loose or this kind of a crack pattern is formed and we have the
spalling of a much larger chunk of concrete from the surface. So, basically the cover
concrete falls off from the RC structure, the different patterns of crack formation and
spalling can be seen depending upon factors such as spacing between the bars cover, the
diameter of the bars and so on.

872
(Refer Slide Time: 46:49)

So, now as far as the model for reinforcement corrosion is concerned we can talk in
terms of something like this. There is an initiation phase that is from this point to this
time, there is no corrosion in the reinforcement and beyond this time certain corrosion
takes place. And after this point once the longitudinal cracks are formed the deterioration
takes off at a much more rapid pace accelerated deterioration is taking place. And
initiation time is governed by the chloride concentration near the bars as chloride
concentration near the bars reaches the level that damages the passivating film. And this
will be governed by controlling the cover thickness and the probability of concrete in
terms of the diffusion coefficient of concrete and so on as so as to make the chlorides
more difficult so as to make it more difficult for the chlorides to reach the concrete
surface. And the propagation time is the time that the corrosion takes to reach a level so
as to cause the onset of longitudinal cracks. So; obviously, in this part some amount of
corrosion has taken place, but it is not enough to cause the onset of longitudinal cracks at
this point the pressure that builds up on account of corrosion is the critical level where
the longitudinal cracks are formed.

873
(Refer Slide Time: 48:21)

(Refer Slide Time: 48:50)

So, with these two what we really have is that it could be safe as an engineer to design in
a manner that only the initiation period is taken as a surface life of the structure. These
are this is a this is an idea which we will come back to when we are talking more about
the penetration of chlorides, the buildup of chlorides at the reinforcement location and so
on in the concrete. Now, so far in our discussion today, we have reviewed the
mechanism of corrosion of the reinforcement in reinforced concrete structures. We have
discussed a simple model explaining a corrosion process that finally leads to corrosion
induced cracking in concrete structures.

874
(Refer Slide Time: 49:07)

And we must keep in mind that corrosion induced cracks run parallel to the
reinforcement and are not accounted for in the normal provisions such as permissible
crack width for RC structures. We are familiar with provisions relating to maximum
permissible flexural crack width.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:35)

875
(Refer Slide Time: 49:39)

These are not flexural cracks and therefore, the provision for maximum crack width does
not apply to them, keep that in mind. And before we close what is something that we
need to know little more I would like you to go back and see what is a pourbiax diagram
and how is it relevant from our discussion today?

Another question that I have for you in steel structures there is no concrete surrounding,
the steel they have steel towers. You have steel pressures there is no concrete
surrounding the steel and yet there is corrosion in those structures we try to prevent it by
paying ticket and so on. But in this case what is the electrolyte for the corrosion process I
would like you to study available literature on the extent of corrosion in reinforcement
that will cause onset of longitudinal cracks. This is something which we will also take up
in a subsequent discussion.

876
(Refer Slide Time: 50:49)

Now, it has been reported that occurrence of corrosion in the submerged part of a marine
reinforced concrete structure is much less than the corrosion in a idle zone or zones
which are cyclically exposed to wetting and drying with salt water, what could be the
reason for this, with these questions?

Thank you.

877
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 27
Chloride penetration in concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:18)

[FL] and welcome back to concrete engineering and technology where we are talking of
different aspects of the subject which are acquired importance in recent years, we were
talking about some mechanisms of deterioration in concrete. And we had identified or
decided that our discussion will be confined to reinforcement corrosion in concrete alkali
aggregate reaction freezing and thawing a treatment of chloride penetration in concrete
and carbonation. Within the subject of reinforcement corrosion and concrete chloride
penetration plays a very important part.

878
(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

And let us review what we did in the last lecture. We said that we will look at reinforced
concrete as steel bars embedded in concrete and concrete itself would be basically
considered a conglomerate of coarse aggregate embedded in mortar. And the cement
paste would be the integral part of the mortar as shown here and would comprise of solid
C S H and pore spaces. So, as far as chlorides are concerned they will be sitting either in
the pore spaces or in the cement or in the chemical compounds of the solid hydration
products. These are the things that we will talk about today, but this is a recap of what
we did last time.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:00)

879
We had also discussed why iron in normal conditions embedded in concrete does not
corrode. And that is because there is a dense film of gamma iron oxide which is formed
on account of the high p H in the concrete or the environment immediately surrounding
the reinforcing bars. And this high p H is the result of the formation of large amounts of
calcium hydroxide in the hydration of the constants of cement, that is C 2 S C 3 S C 3
and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:40)

(Refer Slide Time: 02:50)

880
We had also talked about the fact that basically reinforcement corrosion in concrete is
either chloride induced or carbonation induced. And in the case of chloride induced
reinforcement corrosion, the passivating film is damaged even though electrochemically
the environment itself does not change, that is the passivating film can theoretically
thermodynamically still remain stable.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:07)

Whereas in the case of carbonation induced reinforcement corrosion, penetration of

carbon dioxide leads to the consumption of calcium hydroxide which lowers the p H of
the pore solution. And therefore, the passivating film around the reinforcing bars which
is stable at high p H becomes unstable. And therefore, we have a destabilized passivating
film and with the passivating film gone the surface of the iron is open to attack from
oxygen and water which is present in the concrete.

881
(Refer Slide Time: 03:54)

(Refer Slide Time: 04:09)

Now in the class today, we will confine our discussion to different aspects of chloride
penetration in concrete, how the chlorides move into concrete and how are those
processes modeled? What are the parameters involved and so on? So, getting started of
the discussion, let us recall that chloride induced reinforcement corrosion can occur in
any structure if the construction material such as sand water or admixture contained
chlorides. And that is why our codes and standards lay down specific limits on what is
the maximum permissible chloride content as far as sand is concerned or water is
concerned admixture is concerned and so on.

882
Marine structures such as offshore structures ports and harbors structures near the
coastline they are all susceptible to chloride induced reinforcement corrosion, because of
the presence of sea or salt in the sea water. Similarly, structures with deicing salt
applications in cold areas are susceptible to reinforcement corrosion, because there the
chloride ions come in the form of deicing salts. And the structures in that category would
be highways and bridges in cold areas, parking garages which are themselves covered.
But cars coming from highways and bridges with the deicing salt in their tires and the
underbelly that is deposited on the slabs of the parking garages. And that reinforcement
the reinforcement there is rendered susceptible to corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:38)

Now, let us take a look at the concrete in chloride rich environment a little more closely.
We have a cover concrete and we have chloride rich environment outside. There has to
be equilibrium a physical equilibrium between the chloride content in the atmosphere
and the chloride content in a thin layer of cover concrete just outside here which is near
the surface. The chloride in the environment has to be in equilibrium with the chloride
present in the pore solution in a very small thin layer which is closed to the surface. So,
we are further dividing the cover concrete into a thin layer of cover concrete which is in
contact with the atmosphere and the normal cover concrete which is somewhere here.

And of course, that is different from the main body concrete shown beyond the
reinforcing bars and the passivating film of course is as shown. It should be remembered

883
that this thin layer and whatever chlorides it contains serves as the source of chlorides for
ingress inside. So, what really happens or at least the way the models are constructed are
so what really happens or the way the models are constructed? They assume that the
chloride rich environment is in equilibrium with the surface layer of concrete and that
surface layer of concrete serves as the source of chlorides for the penetration of chlorides
further into the cover concrete. So, once that distinction is clearly understood we can
proceed further and understand this as a diffusion process.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:42)

What we are looking at is something like this. That there is a thin layer of cover concrete,
then as time goes on more and more chlorides penetrate from this surface layer inside the
concrete. And what we have is a cover concrete contaminated with chloride ions. The
concentration of these chloride ions could be different at different points in the cover
concrete and it stands to reason to believe that as we go deeper into the concrete. The
extent of penetration of chloride ions will be lesser that is the concentration will be
lower. The concentration of chloride ions in concrete is generally expressed as a
percentage by mass that is kilograms of chlorides to a kilogram of concrete powder or
sometimes expressed as kilograms of chlorides per cubic meter of concrete. Different
units are used depending on what is our convenient.

So, we can convert one from the other, because we know the density of concrete and all
these other constants. So, we can proceed with that having said all these we must also

884
remember where does the chloride ions establish themselves? Where do they physically
occur? If we look at this picture which shows the pore spaces and the solid hydration
products, and this picture which shows coarse aggregate or fine aggregate depending on
whether you are looking at mortar or concrete. Whether it is this thin layer or it is the
cover concrete at large or it is the main body concrete, all these concretes have
essentially this structure. And therefore, the chlorides form the atmosphere that is this
environment here they have to move into concrete through these pore spaces and some of
these pores need not be connected and therefore, they will not contribute to the ingress of
chloride ions into the concrete, but basically the chloride ions move through these pore
spaces and move inside and this thin layer has a similar structure.

The chloride concentration in thin layer should be equilibrium with the chloride
concentration in the chloride rich environment. We must also remember that this whole
process of chlorides moving into concrete occurs when the concrete is wet. Most of this
diffusion process, most of this ionic movement in fact all of these ionic movement to
some extent takes place only through aqueous medium, there is no movement of ions if
the concrete was perfectly dry. And the same argument holds if the environment had
perfectly dry sodium chloride or any other chloride it will not be able to move into the
concrete.

As far as engineering is concerned in all cases whether it is marine structures or it is

deicing salts or it is a swimming pool where chloride or it is a swimming pool where
chlorine has been used for keeping the water clean in all cases there is water involved.
And therefore, what we are really asserting is that the water in the environment which is
chloride rich and the pore solution they have to be in equilibrium. As far as chloride
concentrations are concerned. That does not mean that the chloride concentration in the
concrete will be the same as the chloride concentration outside.

Please remember that chloride concentration outside that is in the chloride rich
environment that we are talking about is in terms of percentage of chloride ions in water.
Whereas, chloride ion concentration in concrete is not given in terms of chloride
concentration in the pore solution, because it is virtually impossible to extract pore
solution, and then try to measure the chloride concentration there. We will come to that
discussion a little later, but it must be clearly understood that chloride concentration in
concrete is expressed generally as a percentage or in terms of kgs of chloride per cubic

885
meter of concrete. As we talk before and therefore, to equate and therefore, to establish
in equilibrium between chloride concentration in the chloride rich environment. And the
chloride concentration in concrete is only a conceptual construct and not necessarily a
very simple numerical issue.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:00)

Now, let us look at chloride ion ingress into concrete. What we are seeing is that this is
the surface layer or the thin surface layer that we are talking about in that thin surface
layer. We are assuming that the chloride concentration remains the same is virtually
constant and the reinforcing bars are placed at a certain distance away from the surface
and that is called the cover. And what this figure is showing is the progressive ingress of
chloride ions into concrete with time that is to begin with maybe there was no chloride
inside. And we could almost draw straight line like this, that there are no chlorides inside
except that the thin surface layer has a certain amount of chloride.

With passage of time more and more chlorides went to the concrete with the surface
layer acting as the reservoir. With the passage of time what we find is that at a given
location from the surface the chloride concentration keeps increasing. And now as far as
our previous model in terms of corrosion initiation is concerned, we should understand
the chloride concentration in the neighborhood of the bar should not be allowed to
exceed the critical level within the service life of the structure.

886
So, if we have a certain critical chloride concentration level that is that concentration
level at which the passivating film is damaged. Then what we need to ensure is that at
the location of the bar that is at the cover depth the chloride concentration should not be
allowed to exceed this critical level in the service life of the structure. Soon on or later it
will be exceeded that is no doubt true, but it should not be allowed to happen within the
service life of the structure. And that is the principle of performance based durability
design where we say that yes we understand that this structure is susceptible to corrosion.
It is susceptible to chloride penetration chloride diffusion we have designed it such that
the chloride concentration at the location of the reinforcing bar at the end of the service
life will still be lower than critical chloride concentration.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:50)

Now, this process of chloride ingress into concrete is often modeled as a concentration
gradient driven diffusion process. And that in mathematical terms is given by referential
equation which is given here. We are not going into the mathematics of deriving this
equation and the solution of this equation is a form which is given here. So, the equation
2 is a solution of equation 1 and this is the so called well known Fick’s law. What it says
is that the chloride concentration at a given location is related to the depth time. The
surface concentration and the diffusion coefficient and this build up from here that is
with increasing time more and more chlorides get into the concrete. This phenomenon if
it is represented as the concentration gradient driven diffusion process these curves can
be represented through this kind of an equation. It stands to an argument.

887
We can discuss it whether or not chloride penetration in concrete is indeed at diffusion
process or it is a concentration gradient diffusion process alone. For example in concrete,
it is not only the chlorides which are moving in certain cases water also moves in the
form of concrete. Consider the case of parking garages or deicing salt applications where
the concrete surface is not really exposed to the same amount of chloride concentration.
All the time it is not even exposed to water all the time only when it snows or when it the
snow melts or it rains the surface becomes wet in other cases or at other times it remains
dry. The same thing is true with many instructions where part of the structure which is
submerged is always wet.

It is always under the action of it is always wet and submerged in the sea. It is a tidal
zone, there is a splash zone and there is a zone in the concrete structure which remains
clearly above the sea. And kind of chloride environment there is quite different. So, it
stands to reason to say that all the chloride penetration does not occur through
concentration gradient diffusion alone. Experts and researches in the area understand this
and therefore, only model that is most easily available and can be applied is the diffusion
model. And that is why it is common to use one is free to use another system another
framework which replicates the natural situation better.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:25)

Looking at this equation little more closely C x t is the concentration of chloride ions at a
depth of x from the surface after time t of exposure C 0 and t are the surface chloride and

888
concentration and the coefficient of diffusion of concrete coefficient diffusion of
chlorides in concrete. Now, we must remember that the basis of the formulation of this
equation is the fact that the concentration gradient diffusion process governs and that C 0
and D are constants over time one and at different locations of the concrete structure for
another. These assumptions are very fundamental in nature and have implications which
an engineer must understand.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:24)

So, for the time being we will leave at that we will proceed to take a closure look at the
coefficient of diffusion D and the surface chloride concentration C 0 in this equation?

889
(Refer Slide Time: 20:35)

Now, as far as the coefficient of diffusion is concerned this factor is essentially the eves
with which the chloride ions can move through the concrete that is if this pore structure
here was very dense very tortuous, very fine. Then the ease of movement of the chloride
ions will be low, it will be difficult for chloride ions to move in a structure which is very
fine very long winded tortuous and so on. Compare to a structure which is open, large
and so on and this is or this pore structure is related to the kind of factors given here;
water cement ratio, the cement type, the cement content and so on. It is also the level of
saturation that could be critical as I have said before there is no ionic diffusion expected
in dry concrete.

So, depending on the water cement ratio the cement content and the cement type we will
have different pore structures which will be formed as represented here. And if the pore
structures are different, the ease with which the chlorides can move into concrete will be
different. And that is why our pore in specifications tries to put down numbers on what is
the maximum permissible water cement ratio or the minimum amount of cement content
and so on. When we try to ensure durability of concrete indirectly what we are saying is
that we are trying to control the diffusion coefficient of the concrete.

890
(Refer Slide Time: 22:25)

In practice the chloride diffusivity can be estimated using diffusion cell type test, it can
be done through a rapid chloride permeability test, it could be done through a ponding
test or it could be a estimated from the chloride concentration profiles of different
concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:52)

We will take a look at them one by one. let us talk at the diffusion self set up. This is a
classical diffusion cell where we have a concrete block one side is N a C l, the other side
is pure water it could be calcium hydroxide containing no chlorides to begin with. And

891
over a passage of time what we except is chloride ions to move through the concrete and
start appearing here.

And if we are able to sample the water here over a period of time, what we will find is
that the chloride ion concentration will rise. And as far as mass balance is concerned s if
this chloride concentration raises the kind of chloride concentration here will fall except
that in most cases concentration here is so high that the decrease here is rather small.
Also we must understand that when the chlorides move through the concrete, some of the
chlorides are also in transient. And they are occurring within the concrete and they have
to be accounted for if you really want to do the mass balance.

This is the flux that is the amount of chlorides or the chloride ions that are moving in a
certain time. So, there is an area which is involved as a diffusion coefficient involved
there is a concentration gradient in terms of delta C by delta L where delta L is this
length here and delta C is the differential concentration of chloride ions at 2 ends, t is the
time between observations. And flux is obtained from the change in the concentration in
pure water in the pure water chamber over time the time t.

So, once we understand all these numbers then we know the flux as the how much
chloride has moved in. We know the area of the concrete specimens that we have, we
know delta C we know, we know delta L, we know t and we can actually estimate D. So,
this is one method of estimating the diffusion coefficient directly, it is a very tedious
process, it could take several months depending on what is the size of the specimen that
we take what is the nature of the concrete that we take and so on and so forth.

892
(Refer Slide Time: 25:26)

(Refer Slide Time: 25:59)

Coming to the next test which is the rapid chloride permeability test the RCPT, the
details of this test are available in ASTMC 1 2 0 2 and AASHTO T 2 7 7. I am leaving
out the exact test methods given in these 2 documents and what we can look at we can
look at this test as an accelerated version of the diffusion cell setup. The RCPT test looks
something like this where we have N a C l solution and an N a O H solution on 2 sides of
a concrete disk. And on both sides of the concrete test we have these conducting plates
and wed apply 60 volts of D C across these 2o conducting plates.

893
(Refer Slide Time: 26:44)

So, it is basically the diffusion sell setup with the addition of the conducting plates and
the application of 60 volts of D C for a period of 6 powers and what we do as I said the
details are available in STMC 1 2 0 2. The disk that we use of concrete in this case is
known to be a 100 m m diameter and has a thickness of about 50 m m the disk need to be
vacuum dried and then kept immerged in distill water.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:13)

This ensures that all pour water present within the concrete is removed and is replaced by
pure water. The disc are set up with N a C l and N a O H on either side as shown and 60

894
volt are applied across the 2 phases of discs. And the current flowing between the phases
is recorded and the total charge that is i and t that flows over a 6 hour period is taken to
be representative of the chloride permeability of the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:42)

Instantaneous values of current need to be recorded frequently and what we get at the
end is something like this; that we have with us a certain amount of charge that has
passed for a particular disc a disc of 100 m m diameter 50 m m thickness across which
60 volts was applied for a period of 6 hours. And the current that is going through is
recorded frequently and it is integrated over time to give the charge passed that is in
coulombs. And what we have is a certain number of coulombs and the interpretation is to
be made in terms of how much of coulombs do we get. And ASTM 1 2 0 2 suggests that
the chloride diffusivity will be taken as high moderate low, very low or negligible
depending on what the coulomb values are.

895
(Refer Slide Time: 28:58)

So, basically what the test has done is that the chloride diffusivity or the chloride
permeability has been taken as related to the passage of current through the concrete of
course. As far as interpretation of these results is concerned depending upon the age and
composition of the mix it may become difficult to impress 60 volts of electricity as
required in ASTM 1 2 0 2. And there are papers in literature where test have been carried
out at other voltages and the results need to be referred to. Effort has also been made in
literature to correlate the coulombs with other properties of concrete such as porosity or
oxygen diffusivity strength and so on.

Because at the end of it what we are trying to measure is related to the porosity, it is not
porosity itself porosity itself is measured in terms of volume of pores in a given volume
of concrete or in a given mass of concrete, but the diffusivity is also related to the
porosity. So, we are making an indirect assessment of porosity through this process and
we are trying to determine that using the passage of current. And those coulombs will
have some kind of an indirect relationship with the other parameters such as strength,
oxygen, diffusivity, porosity and so on. And efforts have been made in literature to relate
these parameters also.

896
(Refer Slide Time: 30:40)

Coming to the third method that may be used to estimate the chloride permeability we
have ponding of concrete in this case or concrete specimen is prepared. And a chloride
solution is just allowed to stand on the concrete surface and after a passage of time the
chloride concentration at a fixed depth from the surface is taken as a measure of the
diffusivity. So, we take a slice as shown here at a certain depth from the concrete surface
we need to take a core, first take a slice at a certain depth and find out the chloride
concentration. In that concrete when we compare the chloride concentration at the same
location for a concrete a with that in a concrete b if the chloride concentration and
concrete be is higher than it stands to reason that that concrete b has a higher chloride
diffusivity, what this method does is not give you a quantitative number in terms of the
diffusion coefficient.

But helps us rank different concretes in the order of chloride diffusivity this method can
also be used to study the effectiveness of a coating. If there is a system or some method
by which we want to coat the concrete here and say this coating is such that it will
prevent the ingress of chlorides into concrete. So, this kind of a method will become very
handy in determining how effective is the coating which has been applied in the surface?

897
(Refer Slide Time: 32:27)

Coming to another method where diffusivity can be estimated that is using the chloride
profiles that are distributions. We need to obtain the concentration at different depths and
find the C 0 and D. So as to obtain the best fit for a given time of exposure through an
iterative process, what this method really says is that we know or we somehow are able
to obtain the different chloride concentrations at different depth from a concrete structure
or a concrete specimen whatever we are dealing with. If we have a concrete specimen
like this which has been exposed to chloride environment for a certain amount of time
and so on and after that we take a sample out of this make a core make slices and
determine the chloride concentration at different depths.

So, as we come deeper into the concrete the concentration will go down. And once we
have those numbers and we plot chloride concentration versus depth. And we assume
that the concentration profile should follow this equation, that is C of x t should be C 0
times 1 minus error function x upon 4 root of 4 D t. Then for the different excess we
know different c’s and that is what indicated here at x 1 it is c one at x 2 it is c 2 and so
on. And since we have several of these points through an iterative process a numerical
process we can try to estimate the values of C 0 and b. So, we can get the theoretical
value of the surface chloride and concentration and also the diffusion coefficient for this
concrete based on the values that we had.

898
(Refer Slide Time: 34:45)

Efforts have been made in literature to relate water cement ratio which is known to be
the most important parameter as far as porosity is concerned or for that matter the cement
type and we will find that if we collate the information about the diffusion coefficient
from different sources we will get a scatter which is of the nature shown here. It is not a
very promising site it does not occur very well to student who sees that there is virtually
no relationship between the water cement ratio and the diffusion coefficient. But then
this is only to start what we must understand is that this data has been taken from diverse
sources experiments carried out under diverse conditions and so on. And we need to
work a lot more and get better information about diffusion coefficient and its relationship
with parameters such as the water cement ratio or the cement type and so on.

899
(Refer Slide Time: 36:00)

Now, let us come to the surface chloride concentration and try to understand that part a
little bit better. So far as concentration gradient diffusion is concerned only the chloride
in the pore solution need to be considered, because it is only the chlorides which are
present in the pore solution that move because of concentration gradients. Engineering
judgment shows that the total amount of chlorides in the cement paste or in a concrete is
much different is higher than that is physically possible. If we consider the condition that
the pore space and the pore solution have to be in equilibrium with the chloride solution
outside amounts of chloride that we have in concrete is much higher. And therefore, we
are forced to assume that a lot of chlorides are actually sitting crapped partially or fully
in the hydration products that is in the C S H gel. And now once we understand or
assume that the chlorides can be present in different forms fine we will say that the total
chlorides is what we are trying to work with and what should be the number that we need
use in the formulation of a problem.

900
(Refer Slide Time: 37:35)

The Japan society of civil engineers has suggested the following values in terms of kgs
per cubic meter that may be used till such time as a better approximation becomes
available. In tidal splash zones number may be taken as 13 in coastlines it can be taken
as 9 and depending on what is the distance from the sea the number can be taken to be
different as far as vertical as far as the height of the structure is concerned. It also
suggests that a meter of vertical distance may be taken to be equivalent of 25 meters of
horizontal distance. These numbers are engineering approximations based on
observations and are now being worked out for greater accuracy. And the people across
the world are trying to understand chloride concentrations and chloride penetration in
concrete better and apply it for engineering decisions.

901
(Refer Slide Time: 38:45)

As far as the concrete now let us try to look at the different states in which the chlorides
can exist within the concrete. One is fixed within the hydration products of the cement
this is very likely to happen in cases when chlorides are present as part of the constituent
materials at that time the hydration products are only being formed. And if there are
chlorides those hydration products will be formed along with the chlorides in other
words the chlorides will become a part of the hydration products. Then of course, there
are chlorides in the pore solutions and they are basically free chlorides. And finally, there
are loosely bound chlorides on the walls of the pores and this is what is diagrammatically
represented here, where we have a pore and this is a large pore which is partially
saturated with water.

So, we can say that this much is water and this is let us say sir and within the pore
solution we have these chloride ions which are in solution and therefore, they are highly
mobile. These are the chloride ions which are trapped chemically in the hydration
products and these blue ones are chloride ions which are loosely bound or they are
adhering to or they absorbed on the surface of the pore walls. And they can be called into
solution or they can move into solution and go back to the absorbed state depending on
whatever is going on inside the pore structure.

902
(Refer Slide Time: 40:58)

As now, now the question is which of these chloride ions are really harmful from the
point of view of reinforcement corrosion as first deleterious science are concerned it is
argued that the chlorides fixed in the hydration products are not likely to cause any
harmful effect as far as corrosion is concerned. The argument is as follows; that if we
have a surface like this and a reinforcing bar here chlorides which are fixed in a location
something here like here which is never which is not very close to the reinforcing bar
these chlorides so long as they are fixed in the hydration products have no bearing on
whether the bar will corrode or not. Therefore a differentiation is sometimes made in
terms of total chlorides and soluble chlorides.

Total chlorides in concrete are determined by extracting the chlorides with something
like nitric acid we take a powder of concrete boil it with nitric acid and all the chlorides
which are there come out designs whether they are in hydration products whether in pore
solution or adhering to the surface or water. In the case of soluble chlorides we do not
want chlorides which are bound in hydration products to appear or come into solution.
And therefore, the extraction is with water there methods to do it they are standardized in
terms of for how long the water should be allowed to as to how long the process should
be allowed to go on whether it there should be stirring boiling and so on. But the moral
of the story is that at the end of it, it is difficult but the bottom line still remains that the
total chlorides are the most important chlorides. And as far as engineering judgment is

903
concerned they are the only parameter that can be used in terms of comparing with the
critical chloride concentration.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:10)

Now, coming to another parameter which is the critical chloride concentration that
causes the onset of reinforcement corrosion based on tests including fresh concrete
accelerated test and so on values in the range of total chloride content of 0.3 to point 6
kgs per cubic meter have been reported. Investigations based on more realistic
environment have suggested values in the neighborhood of 1.2 to 1 have suggested
values between 1.2 and 2.4 k gs per cubic meter. And the JSCE has endorsed the value of
1.2 kgs per cubic meter in the hope that the number will be revised hence more
information becomes available.

904
(Refer Slide Time: 43:59)

Now, how do we determine this value? We determine this value by test such as
immersing a steel bar in a saturated calcium hydroxide saturated solution which is a
popular medium to represent pore solution and vary amount of chlorides in that saturated
solution and test the bar at the end of the test using electrochemical methods visual
inspection or loss in weight and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:30)

We must also try to look at the effect of flexural cracks when we have a concrete beam
we also have sometimes some flexural cracks in the beam. And these flexural cracks

905
promote faster chloride penetration into concrete, and whether or how this flexural
cracks effect the chloride penetration is something which an engineer should be aware of
and this, what we are looking at. We have a certain width of flexural cracks; we have a
certain spacing of flexural cracks. This causes local damage around the reinforcing bar
and it is likely to damage the passivating film again in the neighborhood of the cracks.
So, the keywords in this kind of a study would be surface width that is the width of the
cracks at the surface the spacing of the cracks subsidiary ingress. Subsidiary ingress
means this is what primary ingress is because that is what is being controlled by the
water cement ratio and the strength of concrete the porosity of concrete here.

But as far as penetration of chlorides in these parts is concerned is not occurring through
the main body concrete it is first going through the crack and then from here onwards
certain amount of penetration is taking place. Except that this cracks spacing in most
cases is quite small. Most of our codes do not allow cracks higher than say 0.2 m m or
0.3 m m and that 2 if there are aggregates within the crack, the crack does not look all
that open as I shown here. And therefore, this penetration from the cracks is indeed, what
can be called subsidiary ingress. The amount of corrosion that takes place on account of
all this is also related to the extent of tension in the bars that is, what is the tensile stress
in the bars. So one of the methods of controlling the crack width and therefore,
subsidiary ingress, and therefore chloride levels at the reinforcement location. And
therefore, finally, the reinforcement corrosion is to control the allowable amount of
tensile stress in the reinforcement. And of course, the cover thickness besides concrete
properties that is water cement ratio strength and so on and so forth.

906
(Refer Slide Time: 47:24)

Now, if we look at chloride ions diffusion in cracked concrete this is what really is
happening. So, parts of this diffusion process here is through the main concrete part of
this diffusion here is not main diffusion through the main concrete coming through the
cracks and what we have is hardly a one dimensional diffusion. Normally we assume
chloride penetration and concrete to be a one dimensional diffusion process. And that is
why if you recall the, we saw the equation which look like del 2 c by del x square is
equal to D times del c by del t. So, this del 2 c by del x square basically assumes a one
dimensional definition process, which is hardly the case, if we look at a system like this
where the diffusion is definitely not a one dimensional process. But then again it is a
model so long as the cracks are fine they are very small in width an equivalent diffusion
coefficient can be calculated by multiplying the diffusion coefficient D by some method
may be 1.5 or 10.3 and so on.

907
(Refer Slide Time: 48:40)

And finally, we want to find out the time to corrosion which can be the time to corrosion
which will be determined by a graph like this which says that well at the end of service
life t. The chloride concentration at the location of reinforcing bar that is at a depth l
from the surface for a given concrete which has a diffusion coefficient D will reach
either chloride concentration itself or just a fraction below that. And as far as design is
concerned what we need to ensure is that the chloride concentration at l. At the end of
the surface life t should be less than the c l c r that is the critical chloride concentration.
And this can be done by having a combination of cover l and the diffusion coefficient D,
either we can increase the cover or we can reduce the diffusion coefficient or a
combination of these 2 methods so long as we do that we will be able to have a durable
structure.

908
(Refer Slide Time: 50:22)

(Refer Slide Time: 50:45)

So, this is what the basic principle was that there is an initiation time and propagation
time. And if we do not want to bother about the propagation time, because of engineering
considerations and we want to confine ourselves to the initiation time. Then we need to
follow. Then we need to have the strategy which we just discovered or we need to follow
the strategy that we just formulated that is at the end service life the chloride
concentration at the location of the reinforcing bar should be lower than the critical
chloride concentration.

909
(Refer Slide Time: 50:48)

Now, before we close the discussion today, I would like to leave some questions, what is
Friedel’s law? We talked in terms of chlorides being fixed in hydration products and that
should give you and that should give you a hint as to what is Friedel’s salt. The second
question which I would like to leave for you is how can the values of service, how can
the values of the surface chloride concentration and the coefficient of diffusion be
determined from the chloride concentration profiles in the discussion. Today, we just
said that given a concentration profile with a certain number of points we can do it in an
iterative manner. Please try to see how actually that iteration process will work.

Can the values of the surface chloride concentration and the coefficient of diffusion be
taken as constant they are taken as constant s they may be taken as constant that is also
another s. But what are the implications of doing so is it realistic is it not realistic and so
on. From available literature try to study the difference in the chloride concentration
profiles for different environmental conditions, different cement types and different
water cement ratios. And you will get the kind of results that I showed you in one of the
picture they will give you information about chloride concentration profiles from
different kinds of environments. If we take a structure or a sample from a highway which
has been exposed to 10 cycles of deicing salt every year and the sample has been drawn
after 10 years.

910
Now, chloride concentration profile there would be quite different from a marine
structure where the sample or the core has been taken from the submerged part of the
structure or the tidal zone or the splash zone or a structure which is away from the
coastline. The distance to the coastline may be 500 meters may be 100 meters and there
if you try to take the concentration gradient or the concentration variation of chlorides
within concrete. These are the kinds of thing that we need to study and assimilate bring
bring them together on a common platform. And then try to figure out what really is
happening, as far as chloride penetration in concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 53:37)

With that let us close the discussion. Thank you.

911
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 28
Using epoxy-coated bars in concrete structures

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:50)

[FL] and welcome back to the series of lectures on concrete engineering and technology,
where we are talking of the subject in the context of the importance that it is acquired in

912
the recent past arising out of increased concern for quality and durability in concrete
construction, realization that concrete is not a maintenance free material. And the lot of
experience that we have gathered from the performance of existing concrete structures
built may be 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. And we are talking of these different things
fundamentals of concrete, proportioning of concrete mixes stages in concrete
construction and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:03)

(Refer Slide Time: 01:07)

Now in this we are talked of mechanisms of deterioration in concrete structures.

913
(Refer Slide Time: 01:13)

(Refer Slide Time: 01:17)

And among in that we had discuss a little bit about reinforcement corrosion in concrete.
Now as far as this subject is concerned, we say that correction is basically a process
where iron gets converted to iron oxide and iron and iron hydroxide I mean that can be
several oxides there can be several hydroxides, but basically it is a processes where iron
is converted to oxides in hydroxides of iron in the presence of water and oxygen.

914
We must remember that iron if it is left in the atmosphere it corrodes pretty easily. And
as far as corrosion of reinforcement in concrete is concerned it is not so common, even
though we have an ample supply of oxygen and water.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:00)

And we talked about the reasons. why that does not happen, the reason is the formation
of this passivating film in the neighborhood of the reinforcing bars, because of the high p
H of the pore solution and concrete which is a product of the formation of large amounts
of calcium hydroxide on account of large amounts of calcium hydroxide which is formed
when cement hydrates.

915
(Refer Slide Time: 02:30)

Now, we have also seen that this passivating film can be damaged as shown here which
typically happens. For example, in the case of chloride rich environment and where we
have chloride induced reinforcement corrosion, the basic principle there is that in the
neighborhood of the reinforcing bar if the chloride concentration exceeds the certain
threshold level this film is damaged as shown here.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:15)

And therefore, the surface of the bar is exposed to the action of oxygen and water which
is in abunded supply in the cover concrete or the main body concrete. And that is how

916
corrosion proceeds, it can also happen in the case of carbonation which is the process
where carbon dioxide from the atmosphere goes into concrete lowering the p H there,
because of the action or the reaction of calcium hydroxide in the pore solution with the
penetrating carbon dioxide. As a result of which the p H is reduced and the, this
passivating film which was here is destabilized, because of thermo dynamic
considerations the p H goes down and the thermo dynamically per stabilizing film or the
passivating film is no longer stable.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:01)

So, in both these conditions we have conditions which are right for corrosion of the
reinforcement. Now in order to address this problem of reinforcement corrosion we can
follow these three fundamentals step. We can either coat the bar that is we provide
physical barrier between the oxygen and water in the concrete and the steel surface or the
surface of the iron on the reinforcement surface or we could simply use non corrosive
reinforcement. We could use a material that does not corrode or we can do something
electrochemically, because we know that corrosion is an electrochemical reaction which
involves of the conversion of iron, two iron ions and release of a electrons at the anode.
And the consumption of these anodes with oxygen and water which gives you
hydroxilines in this reaction taking place at the cathode. So, if for by sound mechanism
we are able to control the reaction at the anode or the cathode by some electro chemical
means then we can prevent corrosion.

917
So, these are the basically the three fundamentals steps. Now, as for as coating the
reinforcing bar is concerned we could use something like epoxy coated bars or
galvanized steel bars and so on which are in this category where we are talking of
coating, the reinforcement with the barrier. Non corrosive reinforcement is something
like fiber reinforced materials. We will be probably talk about this later on, as for as
electro chemical methods for preventing corrosion is concerned. We could consider
something like cathodic protection.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:30)

(Refer Slide Time: 06:46)

918
Now, cathodic protection is a standard tool as far as steel structures or pipelines are
concerned it is application in the case of concrete structures is rather small. There may be
some applications, but by and large we have not too many applications of cathodic
protection as a means to prevent or protect reinforcement in a concrete structure. So, our
discussion today would be focused on the use of epoxy coated bars, as far as wall of the
methods is concerned for prevention of corrosion in the reinforcing steel. Now, what is
epoxy coated bar? It is basically a steel bar a normal steel bar which has a very fine
coating of epoxy material on it, please remember that this figure is not to scale.

So, if the thickness is very small, now since is basically a normal steel bar most of the
considerations that apply for the choice of a reinforcing steel would still apply as far as
the use of epoxy coated bars in concrete construction is concerned. And therefore,
normal tests such as the tensile strength, elongation etcetera, which are usually carried
out for normal steel reinforcement are not going to be talked about here. And we would
assume that you already know about them. And the, as for as the coating is concerned I
already mention that it is only few microns, they approach adopted here would be similar
in case of other bars. For example, galvanized bars or any other coating that we use,
because it the principle is the same. In new construction that the basically philosophy
design is similar to that of using normal reinforced odd normal reinforcing bars.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:42)

If we are using epoxy coated bars in a repair or rehabilitation job then we have to talk in
terms of compatibility. We have to talk a little bit about the issues related to corrosion

919
the electro chemistry and so on. But for the discussion today, you would confine
ourselves to using normal epoxy coated bars in concrete construction. And the special
tests that need to be carried out when we are using such bars in the concrete construction.
The discussion today would largely be based on the provisions of the Japan society of
civil engineers applications relating to use of epoxy coated reinforcing steel bars. And
we have the issues related to the coating itself then we have some issues related to patch
painting that is material that is used in case certain repairs need to be carried out.

Then of course, there are steel bars which are to be used for the manufacture of epoxy
coated bars and the basting of steel bars for epoxy coated bars. The blasting refers to
sand blasting which should basically means or is a processes by which the normal steel
bars are cleaned before they are epoxy coated, though will not cover it in detail. The
manufacture of epoxy coated bars essentially involves normal reinforcing bars, heated to
a certain temperature, exposed to a powder of epoxy which condenses all the hot surface
of the reinforcing bar forming a very tight thin film on the surface of the bar. Let me
show you some of these epoxy coated bars, this is an epoxy coated bar. As you can see
that it is not really normal steel bar with rims on the surface except that it has a green
coating, the color can be vary color that the manufacture decides or it is pleasing to you.

So, there is a color coded so is basically a normal steel bar with the coating of a epoxy
these bars come in different diameters. You can have bar which is about 316 m m in
diameter there could be a bar which is about 12 m m diameter and so on. If you can
closely look at the surface here, you can see that the surface is the same as of a normal
steel bar and the coating can hardly be measured in terms of millimeters and so on,
because it is really a very thin film.

920
(Refer Slide Time: 11:21)

So, we must remember that this is the kind of material that we are talking of when we are
using epoxy coated bars in normal reinforce concrete construction or pre stress concrete
construction these are the bars which are embedded in concrete. As far as the
recommendations for designing construction of concrete structures using a epoxy coated
reinforcing steel bars is concerned which is JC publication which a France society of
civil engineers. It means it has 9 chapters general provision, coated bars, concrete
materials, mix proportion of concrete reinforcement, work placing of concrete, repair of
coated bars, allowable stresses and structural detail. Now, if we look at this closely
except for the chapter on coated bars, repair of coated bars. And perhaps some
considerations that will apply in terms of placing of concrete, some special consideration
that will apply as far as reinforcement work is concerned which means time of
reinforcement bending of reinforcement and so on.

The other things are just the same as far as are just the same as in the case of normal
concrete construction. The general provisions, the concrete materials, the proportioning
of concrete, they allowable stresses in the reinforcement and structural detailing these are
really independent of the fact that whether the reinforcing material being used is a
normal reinforcement or an epoxy coated reinforcement. In other words, we have to
ensure that the coated bar in addition to meeting the requirements of a normal steel bar
also satisfies the requirements from the point of view of durability, in terms of the fact
that it should not being a damaged coating and so on.

921
(Refer Slide Time: 13:08)

And that is what we will try to study in our discussion today then as for as standard
specification test methods for epoxy coated bars is concerned, there are test methods for
holidays which is essentially a pin hold or a small discontinuity in the coating. So, you
can imagine that these coatings need not be absolutely continues.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:56)

So, there can be a manufacturing defect where in there could be pin holes which have
called holidays there could be small discontinuities and so on. And that is what we need
to test and find out. There are test for impact strength; there is a test for bendability; there

922
is test for bond strength; there is alkali resistance, corrosion resistance and so on. As far
as the specification and test methods for coatings is concerned there are standard
specification for this. Then there are test methods for visual inspection of coatings at
adhesiveness of coatings, impact strength of the coating, flexibility of the coating,
abrasion resistance of coatings, hardness of coatings, corrosion resistance and chemical
resistance of coatings.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:34)

So, there is a small difference which is made between the characterization of the coatings
themselves and the characterization and quality control of the epoxy coated bar. There
are standard specifications for steel bars which can be used and that is a more or less the
same as the normal standard. And that is more or less the same as that for normal
reinforcing bars there is standard specification and test methods of patch painting for
repair of epoxy coated bars which could be specification for the patch paint. And there is
a test method for the patch paint there is a specifications of blasting which is basically a
processes by which is which is basically a process for cleaning the surface of the bar. To
make sure that the coating properly at here is to the surface of the reinforcement.

923
(Refer Slide Time: 15:19)

(Refer Slide Time: 15:28)

Now, coming to the main discussion that we have for today which is testing of epoxy
coated bars in the laboratory. The principle of testing for holidays and pin holes in epoxy
coated bars is basically to use a high voltage device and check whether contact, electrical
contact is made through the non conducting coating. Second the bars, or more
specifically the coatings used should have adequate impact resistance to with stand
accidental and at times an avoidable impact, during placing and compacting of concrete.

924
What this really refers to is the handling of the reinforcing powers, sometimes the
reinforcing bars can hit each other by design or sometimes accidently. So, when a power
powers another bar the coating on the bars should not get damaged beyond the
acceptable limit. And that is what we try to test when we try to determine the impact
resistance of a coating in an epoxy coated bar. The same thing happens when we are
dealing with compaction using internal vibrators. So, the needle of the internal vibrator
unavoidably hits the reinforcement, what we try to do is to make sure that the needle that
is used for the vibration is also epoxy coated. And therefore, the kind of impact that it
has is not as severe as a normal steel the needle would have.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:29)

The details of these tests in terms of the actual voltages used and so on are not covered in
the discussion today. And I would encourage you to look up appropriate references and
test methods from the S T M or any other source, coming to the first order of business
which is in terms of the thickness of the coating of the epoxy coated bars. So, if you look
at this bar again, what we need to ensure is that the coating thickness of this entire bar
should be the same, in principle guess should be the same. But as far as engineering is
concerned it will have a certain amount of tolerance and that should be minimal which
should be as smallest possible it should be within acceptable limits. And the coating
should be uniform in size and conform to the requirements, which is given in terms of
the variations at so on.

925
And the coating, this thickness of the coating needs to measured appropriately using a
thickness device. And is a part of the normal quality control exercise by the manufacture
of course, hand held and portable thickness measurement devices can be used to check
the thickness of coatings at site in a spot check. We should remember that unless the
coating is simply too thick, the effect of the presence of the coating on the bond with the
surrounding concrete is rather nominal especially in the case of deformed bars where the
bond is predominantly provided by the mechanical action of the rips. In case of non-
deformed bars or M S rounds their I can imagine S if we coated deformed, if we coat A
M S round. Then the implication in terms of the bond strength would be much larger,
because basically there the friction between they m s round and the surrounding concrete
is the predominant force providing the bottom strength. In this case where deform bars
are used and that typically the case, in most of the reinforce concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:15)

Now, the predominant force as for as bond is concerned is provided by the mechanical
action for the rips and the friction per say is a very small component. And therefore, the
presence of epoxy coatings on the bars does not really affect the bond strength of course,
as matter of completeness we need to do appropriate bond test to ensure that any
reduction that the any reduction that happens in the bond strength is within acceptable
limits. Coming to the bend test of the approximate coating bar in concrete construction
the reinforcement very often needs to be bend and when we bend the reinforcement we
need to get a shape which is something like this. So a straight bar is bend around a

926
fulcrum, in order to give a certain shape this can happen and the corners this can happen
when we bend the bars from the considerations of shear and so on and so forth.

Now, once we do that what really happens is that the outer surface of the bar is subjected
to tensile forces. And if the coating is not the tile enough it will we damaged and that is
what we need to ensure that does not happen. And this is why we have to carry out of
bend test; obviously, there should be appropriate roller, should be used. So that the
contact itself does not damage the bar use coated roller themselves and so on. The details
of test such as the actual diameter of the roller which should be used the angle through
which the bar should be bend and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:42)

Is being left out from our discussion today, now this picture here shows what happens to
a bar which is not good enough. This picture here shows that the cracking; this picture
here shows that the coating has cracked it has simply failed it did not have the right
amount of flexibility. And when the bar was bend there was a failure at this point
compared to the bar shown below.

927
(Refer Slide Time: 22:26)

So, this is the bend test for the epoxy coated bars. This device here is used to detect to
presence of holidays or pin holes in epoxy coated bars. And as was mentioned earlier
basically the idea is that there is a high voltage applied between sound place here where
the coating has been removed and the make it surface of the reinforcement exposed and
the power supply here. And this power supply and the contact that we have at the
reinforcement the continuities checked, using this kind of an electrode or a brush which
is used along the reinforcement.

So, if we have bar like this, what we do is use that brush at different points to check
whether they coating is integral. The non conducting nature of the coating, make sure
that only at locations where there are pin holes on the epoxy coated bar where they will
be a contact. And that can be seen using the multi meter kind of device that we use in the
system. As far as specifications are concerned, we can talk in terms of what is the
maximum number of pin holes that can be tolerated? Please understand that it is virtually
possible to get zero pin holes, a manufacture can target zero pin holes. But they will be
some pin holes sometimes and it is up to the client or the user to decide what is an
acceptable level of defects? It is much likely characteristics strength of concrete where
we say yes we accept 5 percent failure of cubes that is 5 percent failure below the
characteristics strength. Of course, from engineering point of view we also impose a
limit on what is the minimum acceptable strength regardless of the 5 percent criteria?
That is part of quality control of concrete.

928
Similarly, here we have to have a specification which sells the 12 in the manufacturing
process. We will test the bars with the certain frequency.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:29)

We will test certain lengths per total length of the powers manufactured, and we will
accept the bars provided the number of defects is lower than an accept than a pre-
determined number. So that is how we basically go about doing a quality control as far as
presence of holidays in epoxy coated bars is concerned. Now, this picture here shows
how the impact resistance of the epoxy coated bars is carried out? So, we can see that
there is a graduated scale that runs along the pipe which is here. And this here is a tub
which is something like this u shape. And this tub is taken up and how high it is gone is
measured by this gradually this scale and allowed to fall on to this reinforcing bar here.

929
(Refer Slide Time: 26:22)

Once it falls on the reinforcing bar what we need to see is whether the coating has been
damaged or not. And that is something which is shown here that once the tub falls on the
reinforcing bar here what happens in this shown here that is the up kind of pit is formed.
And that pit, if now depending on the properties of the coating, this pit may have an
unacceptable or a very thin thickness or a very small thickness here or it may even
simply break. And that again can be seen in terms of a device, now whether or not this
pit that has formed has actually resulted in the formation of a unacceptably thin film or
has resulted in an unacceptable level of damage to the film can again we checked using a
device something like this. And we use the same device to check whether the coating
that has that the pit that has formed or that this deformation that as occurred in the
coating is a acceptable or not. Needless to say the specifications that we used in terms of
the voltage used for a impact test and so on need not really be the same as that for used
in the case of determination of pin holes in the epoxy coated bars.

Now, coming to the thickness of course, we have seen that there are devices which will
tell us how the thickness is or what is the variation of the thickness along the length q.
And their again we need to have specification which we tell us what is the amount of
variation that we will accept? As far as the mean value is concerned what is the
minimum thickness that we will accept? As far as the mean value is concerned what is
the minimum thickness that we will accept and so on? Now, as far as the impact
resistance of the epoxy coated bar is concerned, the weight of the tub is standardized.

930
And therefore, the impact resistance has to be measured in terms of the height through
which it can fall and still not damage the coating. Now, how do we go about determining
this height?

(Refer Slide Time: 28:49)

So, let us go through a small example and see how this can actually be determined if we
have the height of fall to be 15 centimeter 16 centimeter 17 and 18 and so on we keep
increasing it, what we really doing is we are increasing the height through which the tub
is allowed to fall by 1 centimeter. And as for as the performance of the coating is
concerned which is measured in terms of, whether the coating is damaged or not when
the tub is allowed to fall from that height.

931
(Refer Slide Time: 29:56)

Let us say that it 15 centimeters the performance is acceptable that is the coating does
not get damaged, at 16 centimeters again it is acceptable so long as it is acceptable. We
increase the height to determine what happens at that next stage? So for example, it is 17
is also acceptable. But at 18 the performances not acceptable, what is done actually is
that we need to keep changing the location as well, what we need to do is to keep
changing the location at which the straight occurs. So, this bar here is shifted by a unit,
every time we to the test. So, if we look at the bar, the first step backed is let say carried
out here and the bar is moved; the next impact is carried out here and the bar is moved
and so on and so forth. So, it is important to ensure that at no place the bar is actually
struck toys.

932
(Refer Slide Time: 30:51)

So having said that now if the coating fills if it is dropped from 18 centimeters, the
procedure would say that you go back to 17 and find out if the coatings is still intact.
And if it is intact then you go back to 18 and it might happen that in this time the coating
performs alright, because as a matter of manufacturing it is possible that only at that
location where the first 18 was struck there was a small problem. And therefore, the
coating field when the we move the bar to 17 and the next location and go back to 18 at
the next location as we keep moving the bar, at that new location where the next 18 was
a struck the coating performed alright.

And therefore, we are allowed to go to 19 and see how it performs go to 20 how it

performs and so on, may be a 21 it fails and if it fails a 21. Then we go back to 20 and it
passes we go back to 21 and it face again. Now this here is an indication now that the bar
is such that it is not able to take a 21 centimeter fall and can take a 20 centimeter fall.
And this kind of a process if we say this happening toys in a row is unacceptable then we
have a situation that we have determined that the impact resistance of that particular bar
is 20 centimeters.

933
(Refer Slide Time: 32:31)

So, at the end of end the cost is very important parameter that we must in mind when we
are using any new material. Coming to other methods there are test for flexibility and
quality of coating of epoxy coated bars. So, this picture here is that for flexibility of a
coating, whereas this picture here is a visual inspection of the coating on the
reinforcement bar.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:15)

So, if we look closely at a coated surface we might find small droplets much like that
droplets that we see in case of a painted surface, and the presence of these is an

934
unacceptable sign as for as the quality of the epoxy coated bar is concerned. Now, let us
come to the durability of the coat, a coated bar is very good as far as its action, in terms
of prevention of corrosion is concerned. However, we need to ensure that the coating
itself is durable in the, is specific environment that it is located and this specification
environment we are talking about is that of concrete which has a high p H. And
therefore, the coating should be such that it is durable in high p H.

Now, these tests when it comes to testing of coated bars on the coatings in concrete is
concerned they can be carried out either by buying these bars in the concrete. So that we
know that they are being buried in an actual environment and there is no simulation
involved and we get the performance of the coated bar from this test.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:52)

If we are using these tests as a quality control measure for the acceptance of epoxy
coated bars. Then the test method should clearly specify what kind of concrete the bar
should be embedded in, how long will they exposure test we carried out and what we
will be the method adopted to evaluate the bars once they are extracted from the concrete
specimen? Another way of doing the test is by simply putting the bars in a simulated in
environment of concrete. And we have often talked about saturated solution of calcium
hydroxide being a very good substitute as far as concrete is concerned. A saturated
solution of calcium hydroxide simulates the high p H.

935
The advantage of carrying out test like this when we expose the bars or immerse the bars
in a saturated solution of calcium hydroxide with whatever other chemicals that we when
we need to add or we may want to add. They advantage of that is that we can actually see
and monitor the deterioration if at all it is occurring in terms of loss of thickness
formation of holidays, crimpling and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:58)

The disadvantage of working like this is that it the end of it, it is not the real environment
it is only the simulated environment. Continuing with tests on durability of coatings of
epoxy coated bars. And example could be chlorides we could embed these bars in
concrete contaminated with chlorides. And see how they perform over a period of time
and these specimens of concrete reinforced with epoxy coated bars can be expose to
environment such as cyclic wetting and trying with salt water with plane water, elevated
temperature and so on.

And the kind of test method that we follow depends on whether we are testing the bars
from the point of view acceptance and quality control or we are testing the performance
of bars in an actual environment. In the form of case, most of the parameters that we
need in terms of concrete used the chloride environment the environment in which the
concrete should be exposed duration and so on. All those have to be fixed and we should
only try to see that under those fixed conditions of standard testing, what is the
performance of the bar?

936
However, in case, the target or the objective is to determine the performance of a coated.
The objective is to determine the performance or study the performance of a coated bar
in a certain environment. Then the test conditions have to be suitable quantified so that
we are testing the bar in an appropriate environment. And therefore, we need to have
another regime by which that evaluation will be carried out, but at the end of it they
evaluation is all in terms of formation of holidays, the continuing the loss in continuity of
the coating trampling of the coating damage to the coating and so on and so forth.

We should also remember that compared to as the epoxy coated bar which will be
extracted out of a concrete specimen which is shown here or a bar which is going to be
extracted out of a solution which has been in which it has been embedded. They will be
big difference as far as how it appears, as far as the bar which is exposed to solution in
this concerned it will be much easier to study that bar in terms of what the coating looks
like and so on and so forth. Whereas a bar which is extracted out of concrete here would
have cement particles may be send particle some times and hearing to the surface of the
bar. And though a those particles can sometimes not be easily removed, because any
attempt to remove those particles could also damage the coating which is not part of the
testing procedure. These things are these things need to be kept at the back of the mind
when we decide on a testing regime for the epoxy coated bars when use in concrete
construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:24)

937
Now, if we look at the discussion today in the context of what the cores, what the other
subjects in this simple, in this module deal with? It could be a situation where we talking
of special concretes, because here we have using a special material as for a reinforcement
is concerned, we have addressed reinforcement corrosion. And therefore, the discussion
is part of some kind of deterioration process in reinforced concrete construction. Then
we have addressed issues which are related to the maintenance of concrete structures in
slightly convoluted way but yes there are relevant from that point of view is well.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:24)

(Refer Slide Time: 40:36)

938
So, the idea is let often times it is not possible to classify a discussion very strictly into
one or the other compartment, and that something which you can keep at the back of
your mind, as we go along these cores. So to the discussion for example, today is
relevant from the point of view of reinforcement corrosion in concrete it is relevant from
the point of view of chloride penetration in concrete and also carbonation I would like to
thank the Japan society of civil engineers and the publication recommendations for
design construction of concretes structures using epoxy coated reinforcement bars which
is the bases for most of the material that we discussed today and the photographs which
are been borrowed from professor Uomoto, the chief executive public works research
institute Japan, and former the professor of the department of civil engineering university
of Tokyo, and chairman of concrete committee of the JSCE.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:06)

939
(Refer Slide Time: 41:16)

Now, before we close as usual let us go through a couple of questions which will help us
understand the subject better. We should study a little bit more about the manufacturing
processes of the epoxy coated reinforcing bars, because once we do that we will
understand what can be the causes for the problems or issues relating to quality as far as
epoxy coated bars is concerned. For example, one issue could be the temperature at
which the epoxy is deposited on the bars. The duration for which the bar is allowed to
stand in that chamber, the rate of cooling of those bars and so on. It will be good if you
find out the details respective bending, impact resistance, holiday’s in durability. We just
discuss the principles of the test, we did not discuss the specific issues as the, what kind
of concrete, what kind of solution, how long, what temperature and so on? For the
exposure of the these test.

We know it will be good to know little bit more about the principle and the methods of
measurement of thickness in epoxy coated reinforcing bars that something which civil
engineers often do not encounter, because very few of us actually use epoxy coated bars.
And unless we use a epoxy coated bars we will not need to measure the thickness of a
coating which is very small that something which civil engineers often to do in case of
steel structures, yes of course, when we paint steel structures again from the point of
view of corrosion protection there is a need to determine or measure the thickness of the
coating. So that something which is slightly different from using a epoxy coated bars in
R C construction or pre stress concrete construction. Making a list of major projects in

940
India broad where epoxy coated bars have been used would again be a very informative
and instructive exercise.

And finally, better understanding of the cost of epoxy coated bars so that we have in
perspective as to what is the financial implication of using a material which is more
durable. Yes what at the end of it what is the kind of cost involved? And whether we
want to investment additional amount of cost would depend on what kind of a structure
we are building? If we are building a structure which is very normal or may be
temporarily then one may decide that we will not need to use of, we need not use epoxy
coated bar, because of the additional investment involved. Whereas if you are using or
whereas if we are building as structure like a nuclear plant or a bridge a critical structure,
industrial structure and so on where we would like the structure to be actually durable or
to have no size of deterioration, the reinforcement not to corrode there one message that
the investment is justified.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:46)

And with these are like to thank you.

941
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 29
Using FRP as reinforcement in concrete structures (Part 1 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

Namaskar and welcome back to this lecture series on concrete engineering and
technology, where we are trying to go through fundamentals of concretes, proportioning
mixes, stages in concrete constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration,
reinforcement in concrete structures and maintenance.

942
(Refer Slide Time: 00:43)

Now we have talked about some of the mechanisms of deterioration that we see in
concrete structures. Some of those are listed here reinforcement corrosion alkali
aggregate reaction, freezing and thawing, chloride penetration in concrete, carbonation
and both these being the reasons for reinforcement corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:01)

943
(Refer Slide Time: 01:28)

Now, as far as reinforcement corrosion is concerned we have studied that corrosion

basically involves the conversion of iron to its oxides and hydroxides in the presence of
oxygen and water. We know that iron corrodes easily in the atmosphere and that the
corrosion of reinforcement in concrete is not so common, even though oxygen and water
are available in plenty. And this slide really shows a mechanism that has been modeled
to explain corrosion and concrete structures. So, we have this passivating film which
forms all the reinforcing bars as a result of the high p H resulting from the formation of
large amounts of calcium hydroxide in the system which is due to the hydration of
cements. And so long as this passivating film is intact, the oxygen and water that may be
present in the neighborhood does not cause corrosion of the bar, because the steel and the
oxygen and water are not really in contact.

944
(Refer Slide Time: 02:21)

So that is what our understanding of concrete is and once this passivating film is
damaged and so on or it becomes thermodynamically unstable. The steel bar is rendered
to or it is destabilized on account of reducing of the p H as it is happens in the case of
carbonation, the bar is rendered susceptible to corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:49)

So, in a nutshell corrosion is something which is likely to happen in any case. So, there
are different strategies that are listed here that can be adopted to address the problem of
reinforcement corrosion. One of them is coat the bar and that is something which we do

945
when we have the epoxy coated bars. The other is to use noncorrosive reinforcement, all
together something that does not get affected by the oxygen and water or the chlorides
carbon dioxide and so on does not cause corrosion, does not simply corrode. And that is
where we have CFRM or continuously reinforced fiber material. Sometimes it is also call
FRP or the fiber reinforces plastics. Then of course, we have the possibility of preventing
corrosion electrochemically and that happens. For example, in pipelines and other
structures and one of the strategy is that is adopted or that can be adopted is cathodic
protection.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:53)

Now, as far as our discussion today is concerned it largely focuses on non corrosive
reinforcement that is use of CFRM that is continuous fiber reinforced materials.

946
(Refer Slide Time: 04:14)

Now, let us first examine what is the basic idea of these materials as far as application is
concerned it was the age old Egyptians, another Asians civilization where they used
straw in clay construction. And that probably can be seen as the first use of fibers. As far
as construction materials is concerned of course, now we are used extensively in the
aerospace industry, sporting goods, automotive industry, and beginning to be use now in
the construction industry and concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:51)

947
This picture shows a very simplified example of CFRM or continuous fiber reinforced
material. What we have is these small fibers which are embedded in a matrix. And
depending on what is the fiber, what is the matrix, what is the amount of fiber and so on?
We have different properties that can be used to our advantage as far as our construction
material is concerned.

So, as I stated here the CFRM consist of very fine fibers embedded in a matrix, the fibers
could be glass, fiber etcetera. And the materials such as epoxy polyester and others
constitute the matrix. And thus the properties of the CFRM as they stand would be
governed by those of the fiber the matrix used. And the boundary or the interface as such
once we use the CFRM, we must remember that as far as concrete is concerned or as far
as the application of CFRM in concrete is concerned this CFRM which is shown here
will be embedded in an environment which is high p H same as concrete, because that is
what is going to be embedded in concrete. Another thing we should remember is that this
should bound with concrete, if it is required to be bonded. For example, reinforce
concrete most of the time; we would assume that there is a good bond between the
reinforcing material and the surrounding concrete. So, the bound between the CFRM and
the surrounding concrete is also of consequent to us in certain cases when we have
unbounded construction, of course we do not really care about the bound so much.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:01)

948
Continuing our discussion as far as the reinforcement is concerned in the CFRM it could
be in the form of fibers which is cross section could be circular square or hexagonal. The
diameters are very small of the order of about 10 micrometers. And then there is the
length of these fibers and sometimes we talk in terms of the length as a relation to the
diameter and l by d. The aspect ratio of the fibers is sometimes used in the literature and
it is about 100 for chopped fibers or shot fibers that we use in fiber reinforced concretes
and it is much longer for continuous fibers. So today’s discussion, we will focus on the
continuous fibers of course, other than fibers the reinforcement could also be in the form
of particulates which may have more than 1 micrometer size. The strength of particle is
involved in load sharing with the matrix or in the form of flakes which are platelets.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:08)

949
(Refer Slide Time: 08:18)

But we would be concerned today will be fibers and more particularly the continuous
long fibers as we have talked about. Once again if we go back well before we go in to the
discussion of the different kind of fibers, and the different products that I have made in a
useful construction industry particular concrete industry. Let me show you some fibers
and some products this here is glass fiber strands I hope you can make out the extremely
fine long strands of the glass fiber. Now these fibers of flax can be woven into a clock
which is shown here for this is a cloth made of the same glass fibers. And you can see
that this cloth is woven in both directions that is in this direction as well as in this
direction.

Similarly, instead of glass fibers we can take carbon fibers and these carbon fibers are
black in color, and this is a unidirectional fabric made out of carbon fibers. So, the fibers
are only in one direction likewise we can have a woven fabric made of carbon fibers like
the one that we saw that glass fibers. And this again has long continuous fibers in both
the directions. This here is a different kind of a mat and the fibers in this mat are carbon
fibers which are oriented randomly. So, this is a randomly oriented carbon fiber mat, the
part from glass and carbon fibers, we sometime use what is called aramid or kevlar
fibers. And this is a fabric which is woven out of aramid or kevlar fibers.

So, in all these fibers or in all these fabrics we can see these extremely small few
micrometer kinds of fibers which are woven into fabrics. Now having seen some of the

950
fibers and the bar and the laminate I think we have a better idea as towards CFRM is all
about. And how it can be used as a reinforcing material as far as concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:12)

So we have seen that as far as shapes is concerned the CFRM can be in the form of rods
grids or sheets or fabrics the types of fibers it could be aramid, carbon, glass,
polyethylene, vinyl and so on and so forth. And the typical matrix materials we did not
discuss the matrix materials so far could be epoxy, vinyl ester or unsaturated polyester.
The bottom one remaining that the CFRM basically have this structure that is very fine
fibers embedded in a matrix. And finally, giving a product which is of this nature, which
could be a rod or it could be a flat or a laminate or a fabric.

Now, the most interesting part of the CFRM is that the volume of fibers can be varied.
Now, if we vary the volume of these fibers here, we can vary the properties of the
material putting it the other way round. If we want a certain property in the fiber
reinforced material or we want the certain property in the CFRM we can design the
CFRM by changing the volume of fibers apart from of course, the material of the fibers
and so on. So that gives us a lot of flexibility as far as the design and the construction of
CFRM is concerned, as far as the application of CFRM in the construction industry is
concerned. And as far as rod is concerned the normal volume of fibers is about 50 to 60
percent grids it is about to 25 to 30 percent. And in sheet it varies depending on the
number of layers which are used at site.

951
(Refer Slide Time: 13:43)

So, as we can see for example, in the case of sheets or fabrics they can be used in several
layers. And if they are used in several layers; obviously, the volume content could
depend on the number of sheets. So, this flexibility that we get of varying the fiber
volume gives us a large advantage, as far as the use of CFRM is concerned in concrete
construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:52)

So, let us continue our discussion and try to see, what are the forms that are possible?
These are the fine fibers of glass, carbon or aramid that we have already seen. These are

952
some of the pictures of the different forms they are available in grids like this they are
also available in 3d formats like this or a grid something which is like shown here and
bars which are shown in this picture here. You may like to also notice that because in
reinforce concrete construction we need to have the bound between the reinforcing
material in the surrounding concrete. Some of these rods have especially designed ribs
on the surface to increase the bound much like we have in the case of reinforcing steel, in
the case of flats or strips. Of course, we may not have those bounds, because the purpose
of using them in concrete for quite different.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:52)

Now to summarize FRPs are available in different shapes some of which are shown in
the previous slides. They include rods and flats which may have one dimensional
reinforcement grids which use fibers in two dimensions and they are used in structural
elements such as walls and so on. Though three-dimensional elements are also available
their transportation poses a problem. And they are rarely used.

953
(Refer Slide Time: 15:20)

This here are pictures of one way or two way reinforced fabrics or sheets made of FRP,
that is fiber reinforced plastics that is just another name for the continuously reinforced
fiber material that is CFRM.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:38)

Now, the basic properties of the CFRM are or can be summarizes given here that non
corrosive. And therefore, they can be used in places where normal steel is susceptible to
corrosion and deterioration. And we cannot expect or we cannot allow that corrosion,
because of the criticality of the structure or any other reason they are much lighter. They

954
are much lighter to steel having a specific gravity for 1.3 to 2.7 and specific gravity of
steel we know it is about 7.8. So that makes it about one fourth or may be even less
sometimes of steel. They have high tensile strength and with the higher tensile strength
then steel, they become very useful for being applied as tendons in pre stressed concrete
constructions. In some other applications, we use the fact that the FRPs are non magnetic
in nature. So in examples like this property is useful in places such as MRI chambers and
so on where we do not want magnetic materials in the neighborhood of certain
equipment sometimes we also use their properties against microwaves.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:10)

So, we have these special applications for use of CFRM in normal civil engineering
construction using concrete. And this slides is again just a recapitulations of what we
have done the composites are synthetic assembly of 2 or more constraints comprising of
the fiber phase which is the reinforcement and the matrix they having the advantage of
being corrosion resistance, high strength and stiffness, high strength to weight ratio. And
the material can be designed in, in addition to the structures so it is the… We are familiar
with the concepts of structural design, but use of CFRM gives us the flexibility of
actually designing the material itself by varying the fiber content and the material.

955
(Refer Slide Time: 17:55)

Now, let us take a look at some of the fibers and the matrices and their properties. As far
as aramid is concerned it is a high performance replacement for glass fibers, examples
could be in armor, protective clothing, industrial and sporting goods. It has the
advantages of high strength and the fact that it is lighter than glass; it is more ductile than
carbon.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:24)

Coming to carbon fibers it is a second most widely used fiber used extensively in the
aerospace, sporting goods and the construction industry with the advantages being high

956
stiffness and strength, low density, intermediate cost and as standard modulus of 207 to
240 Gpa, intermediate modulus to 240 to 340 Gpa and high modulus 340 to 950 Gpa. So,
basically carbon fibers give us the flexibility of choosing one or the other depending on
what the stiffness? We want the diameters is about 5 to 8t micron which is smaller than
human hair.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:10)

Continuing with our discussion on fibers or carbon fibers they vary in strength with
processing. And there is a tradeoff between strength and the modulus elasticity for the
intermediate modulus carbon fibers we have the pan or the polyacrylonitrile fibers in the
case of pan, the fiber is precursor heated and stretched to align the structure and remove
non carbon material from there. And in the case of high modulus material it is made from
petroleum pitch precursors at low cost. And pyrolysis method is the one that is used it
has the much lower strength, but high in modulus. So that is what we talk of when we
talk of this tradeoff between strength and modulus.

957
(Refer Slide Time: 20:01)

As far as glass fibers are concerned, they are most widely used fibers used in piping
tanks boats and sporting goods. And have the advantage of low cast, corrosion
resistance, low cast compared to other composites. But it has a disadvantage that they are
relatively low strength, have a high elongation and have only moderate strength and
weight.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:39)

We have E glass and S glass fibers and they have slightly different properties. And one
has to choose the fiber depending on the application that we have. As far as other fibers

958
are concerned than glass carbon or aramid we have boron fibers which are high stiffness.
But very high cast large, they have much larger diameters of about 200 microns, they
have a good strength. Then we have of course, polyethylene fibers which are used from
the textile industry have high strength, very light weight. But they have the
disadvantages, as far as we are concerned in construction that the range of temperature
over which they can be used is quite small.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:56)

Other than these, we also have ceramic fibers and matrices which are very high which
are useful for very high temperature applications. For example, in engine components
silicon carbide fibers in whisker form is a part of this a ceramic matrix is so temperature
resistance, one must remember the however that fibers alone rarely used. Now, with this
background I think we have seen the different types of fibers that are available to us. And
through the applications in the different cases we also see the large variety of
applications or how the CFRM is used in the different walks of life beginning with
sporting goods, protective wear and the automobile industry, high temperature
applications other than the construction industry.

959
(Refer Slide Time: 22:33)

But one must remember that fiber alone cannot be used as a structural material what
needs to happen is that they are embedded in a suitable material. And what should be the
properties of that material? The embedded or the material in which these fibers are
embedded should be such that it is able to transfer the load to the fibers provide
environmental protection to the fibers and provide protection from mechanical abrasion.
So, this is environmental protection here that is the fiber should be protected from p H
the temperature and so on. And at the same time the fiber should also be protected from
mechanical abrasion and mechanical action that may occur in the neighborhood of the
fibers. We must remember that as far as a fiber reinforced plastic is concerned or CFRM
is concerned, it really consists of these fibers which are embedded in this matrix. So, this
matrix is supposed to protect these fibers from the external action which is being talked
about here. At the same time the, the matrix should be such that it is capable of
transferring the load to the fibers.

960
(Refer Slide Time: 23:52)

Reiterating the functions of the matrix materials transmit forces between fibers, arrest
cracks from spreading between fibers. But at the same time they do not carry much of
load hold fibers in proper orientation, protect the fibers from the environment.
Mechanical fibers that can cause cracks and allow the environment to affect the fibers
that should not happen as far as the fibers are concerned. And the matrix should be able
to protect the fibers to that extent does a matter of fact we can draw analogy from what
happens in the case of reinforce concrete itself. One of the functions of the concrete is
also to provide a cover to the reinforcing bars so much as the concretes provides the
cover to the reinforcing bars.

But it must also ensure that the bars carry the load. So there is a transport of stress that
happens from the concrete to the steel the same thing should happen as far as the CFRM
is concerned. The matrix surrounding the fibers place the role of the concrete and the
fibers themselves individually play the role of a reinforcing bar. It is a different matter
that as for as an application is concerned it is the rod itself which is a conglomerate of
millions of fibers which are all embedded in a matrix that rod becomes a single load
carrying member embedded in concrete. But as far as the analogy is concerned one must
remember that the matrix serves more or less the purpose of concrete in normal
reinforced concretes.

961
(Refer Slide Time: 25:51)

So, now continuing with our discussion, as far as matrix material is concerned the
demands on the matrix are inter laminar shear strength, toughness, durability in terms
moisture and environmental p H resistance, because the matrix itself also needs to be
durable. If the matrix is not durable sooner and later the fibers will get exposed and that
is precisely what we do not want. And therefore, durability of the matrix material is of at
most importance when we are designing a CFRM. It should have the required thermal
properties it should be stable in the range of temperature that we expect the material to
be used. Of course, it should be cost effective.

In fact, some of these properties are so important that one must remember these
properties when we are designing tests for ensuring durability and structural action as far
as CFRM is concerned. In the case of concrete applications if we do not want or do not
expect concrete to be exposed to very high temperatures. Then thermal properties have a
certain important or a certain degree of importance, but in cases where we expect the
CFRM even if it is embedded in concrete it is likely to be exposed to high temperatures
then it has to be tested accordingly.

962
(Refer Slide Time: 27:35)

The same is the case with moisture the p H and so on and so forth. Now, coming to the
different matrices or the different materials for matrices, for example, that are for
example, there are polymeric materials which are thermosets, they cure by chemical
reaction which is irreversible in nature. And the examples of these are polyester or
vinylester and they are the most common low cost solvent resistant matrices. There can
also be epoxy resins which have a superior performance what are relatively costly.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:08)

963
Similarly, there are thermoplastics which are formed by heating to elevated temperatures
at which the softening occurs. And this reaction is reversible, and they can be reformed
and or repaired, but that is not very common. But then that also limits the range of
temperatures up to which they can be used, because after that this softens. The examples
for this could include polypropylene with nylon or glass, they can be injected and are
inexpensive the soften layers of combined fiber and resin and place in a mold and that is
higher cost.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:50)

Then of course, there are other matrices such as metal matrix composites which are good
for high temperature applications aluminum with boron or carbon fibers. There are
ceramic matrix materials which are very high temperature resistant. And these fibers
used to add toughness and not necessarily higher in strength and stiffness. And now with
this we have prepared the background for our discussion on the properties of the CFRM.

964
(Refer Slide Time: 29:26)

And before we close the discussion today I would like to acknowledge the support or the
permission from the JSC to use some of the material which we have based on JSC
publication. And I would also like to acknowledge with thanks the permission of my
friends and colleagues professor Uomoto, who is the chief executive of the public works
research institute, formally professor of the department of civil engineering university of
Tokyo. Professor Kato of the IISc University of Tokyo and doctor K K Bajpai of the
department of civil engineering at IIT Kanpur, who have kindly agreed that I may
modify and use some of their slides and other materials for today’s presentation. And
some of the material that I used here today is adopted from an earlier publication of ours
in the ASCE journal. So, with these acknowledgements let us come to some of the points
that we can ponder over before the next discussion.

965
(Refer Slide Time: 30:17)

One can study the applications of CFRM in other industry such as automobile aviation
sport protective personal gear and so on. Study the manufacturing process of the CFRM,
how the CFRM how the CFRM is manufactured beginning with the manufacture of the
fibers in the first place. And then how these fibers are made into the CFRM? That is the
reinforce materials, that is including the matrix and what is the cost difference or what is
the cost of the difference CFRM variants available in the market? So, before we go into
studying the properties or looking at the different CFRM materials which are available in
the market for construction and so on. Let us take a look at some of the fibers and a few
of the products which are used in construction. So, here is the strand of the continuous
glass fiber. So, we can see that these are extremely fine fibers which are all over into a
single which could be over into a single strand.

And this is strand can be embedded in a matrix to give you a fiber reinforced product
made from glass fibers this here is a glass fiber woven cloth. So, we can see that it is
woven in both directions it is woven in this direction as well as in this direction and it is
a same glass fibers which have been used in both these directions. This here is a
unidirectional carbon fiber fabric the carbon fibers are all oriented in this direction and
have the same characteristics as glass fibers except that these are made of carbon. And
therefore, we will behave differently we saw the woven fabric of glass. Now, this is the
woven fabric for carbon, so these are carbon fibers which have been woven into a fabric
both in this direction as well as in this direction. This here is a fabric made with aramid

966
or Kevlar. And here again we can see that they are fibers which are oriented in different
directions though not necessarily perpendicular. This is a slightly different form of
carbon fibers where the fibers are not oriented in a particular direction.

So, this is a randomly oriented carbon fiber mat. This here is made from carbon fibers
which are not particularly oriented in a certain direction. So, this is a randomly oriented
carbon fiber mat. Now, this is an example of a glass fiber rod here we can see that the
glass fibers have been solidified or embedded in a particular matrix. So it is difficult to
make out that this rod is really made up of, it requires some imagination to understand
that this rod is made up of fibers which look like this. But indeed depending on how
much fiber you put in here into this rod, we can actually design the properties of this rod
or we can get a rod which meets our requirements as far as strength and so on is
concerned. Apart from rods, we can also have laminates and this here is an example of a
carbon fiber laminate.

Similarly, this is an example of a unidirectional glass fiber laminate and this is an

example of a unidirectional aramid or kevlar fiber laminate. So we have seen individual
fibers, glass, aramid, carbon and we have seen and we have seen unidirectional fibers;
we have seen woven cloth; we have seen woven cloth made with glass, fibers, aramid
and we have seen a rod or a laminate. Now, depending upon what we want to use or
what are the properties that we want from the reinforcing material? We can actually
combine these fibers. There is no reason that in both directions we should use only glass
fibers; we can use a combination of glass and carbon depending on our needs. So this
flexibility in using different fibers and different directions in different amounts helps us
design materials which can be very useful when we are doing construction, when we are
doing the design of a structure where we want to use these materials. With this we come
to a close for the discussion today.

Thank you.

967
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 30
Using FRP as reinforcement in concrete structures (Part 2 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

[FL] and welcome back to this lecture on concrete engineering and technology, where
we are revising fundamentals of concrete; even proportion of concrete mixes, concrete
concentration, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration in concrete, reinforcement
of concrete structures and their maintenance. Basically, the kind of things which all civil
engineers do and we are trying to see, how the perspectives have changed in the last
couple of years; may be 10 years, 20 years and we want to study or learn a little bit more
about the latest developments in this area.

968
(Refer Slide Time: 00:57)

(Refer Slide Time: 01:02)

Now, continuing with our discussion on the reinforcement of concrete structures or the
reinforcement use therein, we were trying to address the problem of reinforcement
corrosion. And, we had said that basically there are three approaches that we can adopt;
one is to coat the bar, the other was to use non corrosive reinforcement or to prevent the
corrosion electrochemically. As far as coating bar is concerned, epoxy coated bars or
galvanized bars was in option as far as non corrosive reinforcement is concerned, using
continuous fiber, using CFRM or continuous fiber reinforcement material which has

969
basically long fibers embedded in a matrix; that is the option. And as far as
electrochemical prevention is concerned, we could use cathodic protection.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:57)

Now, in the last discussion we were trying to address the issue using CFRM. So, we will
continue from that point onwards.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:05)

And, these are the pictures that we have seen this is the different fibers; carbon, glass,
aramid, in the raw form; that is the fibers themselves which are extremely fine.

970
(Refer Slide Time: 02:19)

And, then we had seen this picture which is the products from the long fibers. And, we
can see that they are in the form of rods, strips, 2 dimensional, 3 dimensional, woven into
nets, fabrics and so on and so forth.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:39)

Now, continuing our discussion, let us try to understand a little bit more about the
structural behavior. Let us try to understand the structural behaviour of CFRM. We will
try to study it using the stress strain curve as the manifestation. We will try to see how
the stress strain curve of CFRM goes or behaves; as we use different fibers, as we will

971
use differential equation fiber volumes and so on. We had talked about the fact that a
CFRM can be looked upon as fiber embedded in matrix. And the properties of this
CFRM could be varied by varying the type of fiber or its content; that is the volume of
the fiber in the matrix. And, what we will try to do is to study the stress strain curve of
this CFRM in case when the load is parallel to the orientation of the fibers; that is a
longitudinal application of load and when the load is transverse to the orientation of
fibers and that is a transverse orientation of load.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:02)

Now, as far as the unidirectional CFRM and that is what we are really bothered about is
concerned in the longitudinal loading; for a CFRM loaded along its fiber axis, the strain
in the fibers in the matrix is the same.

972
(Refer Slide Time: 04:20)

What we are saying is that if we take a CFRM, which is like this, with the lot of fibers
and we apply the load in this direction. Then, the strain that we see here, whether it is in
the fiber or it is in the matrix; it is the same and that is the value that we have for the
composite itself. And under those conditions if we apply simple rules of stress and strain,
we will get the equations which are given here.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:57)

That is E c l will be equal to E m times V m plus E f times V f; which can be written as,
because the volume of the matrix is nothing but 1 minus v volume fraction of the fiber as

973
1 minus V f plus E f times V f. So, different modifications or different adaptations of this
equation can be used depending on what we are really trying to determine. Here, E c l is
the modulus of the composite in the longitudinal direction and the m and f are the
subscripts which are used for the matrix and the fiber. So, naturally we can see that the
property as far as the composite is concerned in the longitudinal direction is a function of
the properties of the fiber and the matrix. That is the E of the matrix and E of the fiber
and the volume fraction of the matrix and the fiber.

So, if we want a certain E; we can get it by varying the E m or the E f or by varying the
V f. So, this is something which we must keep at the back of our mind, when we are
trying to study applications of CFRM as far as civil engineering or concrete
concentration is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:31)

Similarly, if the load was applied in the transverse direction that is in a direction
perpendicular with the orientation of fibers we are not doing the derivation here. But the
E transverse; so, this t here is transverse. So, the E transverse of the composite can be
written in terms of V m upon E m plus V f upon E f and we can write V m as 1 minus V
f like we had done in the previous case.

974
(Refer Slide Time: 07:07)

Now, if we translate that into a stress strain curve; this is what we get. The sigma c,
which is the stress carried by the composite can be written as sigma f times V f plus
sigma m times 1 minus V f; which means, that the total stress that is carried by the
composite is equal to some fraction, that is composite some fraction of the stress carried
by the composite is carried by the fibers, which is equal to sigma f times the volume of
the fraction or the volume fraction of the fibers plus some fraction carried by the matrix
which is sigma m times 1 minus V f.

Graphically, if this is the stress strain curve of the matrix material alone and this is the
stress strain curve of the fiber alone; then, depending on the volume fraction that we
have, we will get the stress strain curve of the composite to be somewhere in between.
And, where it lies between these two lines would depend on the volume fraction. And,
therefore, this, this and this are critical points; as far as we are concerned for a given
strain value.

975
(Refer Slide Time: 08:41)

Now, if you translate our understanding of the stress strain behaviour of the composite to
a graph which says or which shows us the variation of the E of the composite versus the
volume fraction of the fibers. If this varies from 0 to 1; as far as the composite is
concerned in the longitudinal direction the variation is linear, as we have seen. Whereas,
in the transpose direction, it is not linear and it follows this graph. So, we must keep in
mind that the modulus of velocity as far as the composite is concerned is related to both
the modulus of velocity of the matrix and the modulus of velocity of the fiber and is
determined by the volume fraction. And, also whether the fiber is loaded in the
longitudinal direction or it is loaded in the transverse direction. Obviously, in a situation
where we are talking of bidirectional or multi-directional fibers, where the fibers are
where the fibers are oriented in both directions or in random directions, we have to have
this understanding at the back of our mind; when we formulate the derivations for those
cases.

976
(Refer Slide Time: 10:21)

When it comes to load sharing between the fibers and the matrix, there is the formulation
that I have shown to you for the longitudinal loading; that is the loading, which is along
the direction of fibers. So, we can see that the strain in the composite has been taken to
be the same for the fiber and the matrix. And if this is the condition then we can write it
as shown here in this box. That is sigma c by E c is equal to sigma f by E f is equal to
sigma m by E m. Now, if we take these first two terms or if we take these two terms,
then we get this equations here. And, if we take these two things here, we get these two
here and we can derive the kind of equations which are given at the bottom.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:26)

977
Once, we clearly understand what these equations carry, we can simply carryout a
simulation or just put the numbers. And we will find that the percentage of load carried
by the fibers, as far as the total carried by the composite is concerned; depending on the
volume fraction and the ratio of the E of the fiber and the E of the matrix could be
something like this. So, depending on how stiff the fiber is compared to the matrix, the
load carried by the fiber will be different. And as the fiber becomes stiffer, it carries
more load; that is something which we must carry home from this picture.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:10)

Now, this table here is just a data sheet which tells you that depending on the type of the
fiber which is glass or graphite or boron or silica tungsten and Kevlar, how good is the
tensile modulus, the tensile strength, density, how do they change. So, we cannot go into
the details of these numbers. But what we have to see is how do these numbers compare
with conventional materials; such as steel or aluminum or glass. So, if we see for steel
for example, the density is 7.8 and the modulus of velocity is 210 GPa. Now, compare to
these two if we look at E glass; the density is just 2.54 and the modulus of velocity is 72.

So, this fiber is approximately one-third as far as density is concerned and is also about
one-third as far as the modulus of velocity is concerned; when we compare the
performance of E glass with steel. Steel being the conventional reinforcement and E
glass being a non corrosive alternative, which we are considering for application in
structures; where corrosion could be a severe problem.

978
Another way of looking at some of this information is to talk in terms of a specific
modulus or a specific strength. Now, specific modulus and specific strength is these
modulus values divided by the density. So, we try to say that what is the specific
strength; that means, for every k g of material that we use in the structure what is the
strength that we get. So, if we look at those values we find that the fibers are performing
much better because the tensile strengths are much higher. If we look at steel for
example, it is 3.5 versus 0.34; for graphite it is 2.1 versus 0.14 and so on, the specific
strengths are much higher and so is the specific modulus.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:35)

Continuing from the discussion of bulk materials, which was that kind of data which
were shown in the last table; we have properties of structural materials and bidirectional
fibers. If we look at the similar numbers here, we can draw our own conclusions that if
whether we use glass with epoxy Kevlar with epoxy, carbon fiber with epoxy or boron
with epoxy. Because we must understand that epoxy is also very important component of
the composite and contributes to its structural performance in terms of load carrying
capacity; in terms of the modulus velocity and so on. And, we get these numbers here for
the fiber composite as compare to these numbers here which is for steel and aluminum
here. So, we have these are the numbers for fibers and these are the numbers for
conventional materials such as steel and aluminum. Except that of course, aluminum is
not very much used as far as reinforcement is concerned and we are really bothered
about steel versus fiber comparisons most of the time.

979
(Refer Slide Time: 15:44)

Now, let us try to study or look at the tests for quality of CFRM. It is not only the tensile
properties that we are bothered about, we also need to look at flexural tensile properties,
fresh tensile fatigue properties, creep, long term relaxation, coefficient thermal
expansion, performance in anchorage in couples, alkali resistance, bond resistance and
shear properties and so on. If we really want to apply a CFRM such as this as far as
reinforcement in concrete structures is concerned. For that we need to look at once again
on the basic behaviour of reinforce concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:21)

980
Now, this picture here shows a very simple being which is loaded in the center, simply
supported being loaded at the center which deforms like this. And, this here is the
reinforcement because concrete is weak in tension. And, unless we have this
reinforcement here, these cracks are likely to run through and destroy the beam. So, once
we have this reinforcement, the cracks do not run through and these materials go in
tension. And, that is what the basic behaviour of reinforced concrete is all about. So, as
far as we are concerned, we understand this behaviour pretty clearly. We understand this
stress strain behaviour of concrete, we understand this stress strain behaviour of mild
steel and high steel and high yield stress deform bars.

So, as far as civil engineers are concerned, we are familiar with this graph. We know
how concrete behaves as far as stress strain is concerned; we know how mild steel
behaves with this Plato and along yield region in the strain which allows the mild steel to
deform. And, how the HYSD bars behave where there is no well-defined yield point; but
there still we have a reasonable amount of deformation, after the first yielding that occurs
here. Now, we understand this as far as this reinforce concrete beam is concerned or
challenge now is to translate this understanding when we are using FRP materials or FRP
as a reinforcing material. This material is characterized by a higher strength here as far as
the failure stress is concerned but a lower E. So, it is characterized by high strength, it is
characterized by a low E and it is characterized by brittle failure. That is it does not have
this region of large deformations being possible.

So, with this understanding we have to apply FRP as far as a reinforcing material in
concrete construction is concerned. Now, before we apply FRP’s in concrete
construction we must now understand what are different tests that need to be carried out
in terms of fatigue, in terms of creep, relaxation and so on bond; and then try to study the
applications in concrete.

981
(Refer Slide Time: 19:22)

This picture here shows the tensile tests on FRP bars. So, if we look at the tensile test,
this is how the FRP bar fails. So, it is a very brittle failure, destructive in nature and does
not give us any time as far as the netting is concerned. So, there is absolutely no large
deformation region.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:52)

Another thing, which we will see later on in the next slide perhaps. This slide here shows
the failure of the common CFRM; the aramid fibers, the carbon fibers, the glass fibers
and in all cases we see that there is a fair amount of delamination’s that has occurred,

982
fibers have become separated from the matrix, the matrix has completely collapsed and
so on. One thing I would like to point out when testing CFRM is the role of these
anchors at the end of the specimens.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:33)

This part here; the region that goes into the machine where the FRP sample is held and
the load is applied.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:52)

One of the major challenges in testing and using FRP’s is the development of appropriate
devices to hold them in position while the load is applied. The problem is mostly

983
encountered when the testing is carried out in the laboratory or when they are used in
pre-stress concrete construction. You know that in post tension pre-stress concrete the
fibers or the reinforcing tendon is to be held in position over a long period of time, using
a device which will anchor the tendon. And, this is more or less similar to the device that
holds the tendon in position or specimen in position, when it is tested in the laboratory.
The problem arises from the fact that the teeth in the jaws of a normal chuck could easily
cut through the FRP’s even before the tensile strength is reached.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:49)

An FRP rod, when it is held inside the chuck and we want that only this portion should
be pulled or the load should be applied. How do we hold this in position? One of the
ways to do it is to have some kind of teeth, which will grip the specimen. Now, if this
material here, which is the FRP is soft, compare to whatever material we are using here
for the chuck; it is lightly that as the load levels will increase this material will cut
through the FRP’s. And, the failure will occur at the chuck itself or within the chuck and
this is a major challenge as far as testing of FRP’s is concerned.

984
(Refer Slide Time: 23:00)

So, designing these devices or these anchorages is a technological challenge as far as

FRP’s are concerned, their use in the field in the post stationed, pre-stress construction is
concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:19)

Now, if you look at the tensile strength stress of CFRM the way it is shown, if we take
the stress strain curve, the load strain curve; then, depending on whether the material is
aramid or glass or carbon, the stress strain curves are quite different. Carbon fibers are
comparatively stiffer; you will recall from the last discussion that we did have high

985
modulus of elasticity carbon fibers and intermediate modulus of elasticity carbon fibers.
And, that is what makes the carbon fiber reinforced plastics stiffer than glass or aramid
which have more or less the same behaviour.

We must remember that the stress strain behaviour or the load deformation behaviour of
the carbon reinforced plastic rod or the aramid fiber reinforced plastic rod would be
different than this. Because this actual stress strain behaviour also depends on the
volume fraction of the fiber. And, the epoxy or the matrix in combination with which
that particular fiber volume has being used.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:38)

Now, comparing it once again as far as steel is concerned, then what it looks like. For
carbon, the modulus of velocity is about one-third that of steel and the biggest difference
is that we have a large fracture load but we do not have any capacity in terms of
deformations is concerned. The deformation is brittle; it does not allow us any warning,
there are no large deformations possible and that is something, which we must be keep in
mind when we are designing structures using CFRM.

986
(Refer Slide Time: 25:12)

And, once again this is a comparison of the carbon and aramid glass compare to steel and
we can see that as far as aramid glass is concerned, they are again softer than carbon.
And, therefore, as far as steel is concerned they become even more soft.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:31)

Once again if we plot the mechanical behaviour of in terms of stress and strain of the
fibers, we can divide the stress strain behaviour of the composite into two stages. Stage 1
and stage 2, which are separated by this value here which is nothing but the value at
which the matrix becomes non-linear. So, long as the matrix is linear and the fiber is

987
linear, then the behaviour of the composite is also linear determined by the equation that
we have already derived. When the matrix becomes non-linear, the behaviour of the
composite also becomes non-linear or at least it changes its slope and it fails at the value
which is governed by the failure value of the fiber.

So, we can see that even though the matrix itself has some capacity to sustain load in
terms of higher stress; the fibers do not have that capacity. And, therefore, the behaviour
of the composite as far as the stress strain is concerned till failure to a certain point in
time; it is linear governed by the matrix. And, once the matrix cracks, it is governed by
the, the failure is governed by the failure strain of the fibers.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:26)

So, with this understanding; so, this is a very important understanding as far as the stress
strain behaviour of fiber composites is concerned. This picture is just some data for
tensile strength and modulus of elasticity of FRP bars. And, I am skipping this because
the data itself is not really important because it depends on the volume of the fibers that
are used matrix that is used and so on.

988
(Refer Slide Time: 27:43)

And, now let us try to look at some other tests which are relevant form the point of view
of using CFRM as a reinforcing material in reinforced concrete or pre-stress concrete.
One of them is creep; now, what is creep? Creep is the change in strain at a constant
load.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:05)

This picture shows the representation of a creep test using CFRM rods. What is done is
that a CFRM rod is held in position at a constant load; that is the load is held constant
over a period of time. Now, depending on the load level, there will be a certain amount

989
of deformation; that is initially present in the CFRM and that is the elastic deformation.
As the load is sustained over the long period of time, successive fibers will one by one
snap; that is they will fail. And, as the fibers fail the other fibers will carry that load,
because the load is not being changed over time.

Now, what happens as a result of that is that the deformation over a period of time
changes; as I shown here in the case of aramid fibers. And, as one fiber phase after the
other, the deformations suddenly change. And, as more and more fibers continue to fail,
there is a point where the deformation is reaching a level where the entire rod has
basically failed. So, this is what is the basic creep behaviour that is observed; when we
come to the CFRM. Because these fibers are independent units, so the behaviour is quite
different from that of steel; where we have basically a bulk material under sustained
load. Then, we have the concept of relaxation.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:56)

Now, relaxation is the change in stress at a constant strain. And, now depending upon the
actual material we may find that there is up to 15 percent of relaxation. And, that
relaxation again is represented as the change in stress values at a constant strain and is
monitored over a long period of time. And, we can see that carbon, aramid and glass; all
show certain amount of relaxation as far as changes in the stress values is concerned over
a long period of time. Of course, 10 to the power of 7 is a very long time, considering
that one day is just 24 hours. So, we know that in order to be able to carry out this test for

990
so many days, it is not easy. And, therefore, experimental data is very very hard to come
by as far as CFRM or any material is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:59)

This is the representation of creep failure of CFRM depending on whether material used
for carbon fibers or aramid or glass. So, we can see that the behaviour of carbon fibers is
much better than aramid or glass; which shows that all these fibers do not behave in
exactly the same way, as far as performance at higher load levels is concerned over a
period of time.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:26)

991
Now, coming to tensile fatigue; tensile fatigue means the load is varied of course, the
way it is shown here, it is sinusoidal; it need not be sinusoidal at a certain mean load
level in ensuring that all this region, from here to here is still tensile. So, the material is
not being unloaded completely and within a certain band, the material is being tested as
the load is being varied over a period of time. And, the variation could be in terms of the
mean load being applied in relation to the failure load or the amplitude of the load being
varied or the frequency of the variation and so on.

So, in a nutshell the load is time dependent; as against the, as against creep when the load
is held constant. So, in tensile fatigue the load is always in the tensile region, the material
is always in tension; except that the level of tension varies depending on the amplitude
and the frequency of the load application. And, this load is applied over a long period of
time there is a loading cycle and we apply cycles of load.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:40)

Now, this is represented traditionally in the form of an S N curve which really shows that
the number of cycles to failure at a certain stress level. So, this level here on the y axis is
the applied stress to the failure stress. So, if we are going higher up in this picture here,
we are moving in a manner where the applied load level is closer to the failure stress.
Whereas, the stress here is lower than the failure stress.

992
(Refer Slide Time: 33:19)

Basically, this level here how high or how low is this level compare to the failure level.
If this is the stress strain curve of the material and the applied load is being varied at this
point versus the applied load is varying at this point; this here is at a lower stress level
and this is at a higher less stress level.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:45)

And, that is what is represented by these two points here along the y axis and naturally if
the stress levels are lower and naturally if this stress levels are lower, the number of
cycles to failure or higher. And, if the stress levels are higher, the number of cycles to

993
failure is low. And, if we study this S N curve for the different fibers, we find that the
glass fibers are most vulnerable as far as fatigue loading is concerned. Comparatively,
the carbon fibers show much better performance.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:17)

Now, coming to the deterioration of fibers or deterioration of the CFRM. This really
consists of the deterioration of the matrix or the deterioration of the fiber, looking at
another way; what is the mechanism of deterioration? Whether it is ultra-violate rays or
we are talking of alkali.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:44)

994
Coming to alkali attack, we see that if we immerse the CFRM in an alkali solution. And,
why alkali? Because we are expecting that the concrete is alkaline, we know that the
concrete is alkaline. And, the fibers or the CFRM is in contact with the high alkaline
solution; that is we talked about last time. And, if we look at the change in strength with
immersion time in the p H or a high p H environment; we find that glass is particularly
vulnerable as far as its durability in high alkaline environment is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:28)

As far as a model is concerned we can look at it the way it shown here, that there is a
deteriorated skin portion; that can be identified as far as a glass FRP is concerned. And,
only the core remains unreacted or undamaged. One of the ways therefore, to use glass
reinforced fiber plastics in concrete construction would be to have a coating on the glass
fibers and the CFRM in order to protect them from reaction of alkalis in the
environment.

995
(Refer Slide Time: 36:13)

As far as ultraviolet radiation is concerned we have to account for of course, the

deterioration in the matrix and the fiber. And, what most experiments of the studies are
found that the deterioration in the matrix of course, will be the same. But only for aramid
fibers there has been some reported deterioration as far as the change in strength on
account of the exposure to ultra violate rays is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:39)

Now, continue again from the last discussion; let us look at some more field applications
of CFRM.

996
(Refer Slide Time: 36:49)

Here we are using CFRM in a tunnel construction. So, we can see that there are there is a
net which has been placed using these bolts to hold a lining which is going to be applied
on the tunnel.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:09)

Similarly, here we are looking at FRP reinforcement being placed, which again is a grid
as shown here; for the reinforcement in a concrete wall. In this case, we are using FRP as
cables.

997
(Refer Slide Time: 37:27)

These cables are FRP cables in a cable-stayed bridge.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:37)

Another example is shown here; where we are trying to use FRP in the reinforcement of
slabs, in the airport apron area.

Refer Slide Time: 37:46)

998
This is another application of FRP where its nonmagnetic properties are being used in a
lot. Because there are some devices embedded in the slabs, which will help detect the
presence of a car, when it is parked. And, if there is a normal steel reinforcement that
may not be possible; and therefore, FRP may be used in at least certain places where
those senses are placed.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:20)

This structure here shows FRP on a monorail structure.

999
(Refer Slide Time: 38:23)

This picture shows the fiber reinforce plastics being used as a reinforcement in a small
bridge, in a golf course.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:32)

Yet another example of using FRP’s in concrete construction or civil engineering

construction is in strengthening slopes using pre-stress FRP tendence as I shown here.

1000
(Refer Slide Time: 38:46)

This is another interesting example of using FRP as external reinforcement in the repair
of RC bridges or reinforce concrete bridges. Let me explain what external reinforcement
in repair work is.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:05)

When we have a beam and it deteriorates (No Audio From: 39:17 to 39: 26). If there is a
concrete beam with reinforcement which has cracked; one of the ways of repairing this
beam with external reinforcement would be to just have something outside this beam and
tie the two ends using something like a fiber reinforced plastic rod. And, if we introduce

1001
tension, that is we introduced tension in the FRP rod, which is being used external to the
beam. Then, what we ensure is that we have, then we ensure compression under
concrete. That is we are externally compressing the concrete. And, this helps in closing
the cracks, getting rid of additional deflections and so on. So, that is a principle of
external reinforcement in repair works of RC bridges. And, given their high strength
FRP’s are a good candidate for using this condition.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:42)

This picture here is that of FRP as reinforcement and highway construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:47)

1002
This is another example where CFRM sheets have been used for a strengthening of RC
columns. We can see that as far as the concrete here, this is concrete; we can see that the
concrete here in the column has now been wrapped using this FRP sheets. Now, how this
helps as far as strengthening is concerned is by the following action.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:21)

If this is a concrete column which is under the action of compressive loads; what
happens with the column is that this concrete when it is under compression would tend to
expand. Now, if we are able to wrap this concrete which is something like this in the
front view, then this tendency to expand is arrested. Because in order that this concrete
be now able to expand, this has to cause failure of this fiber sheets. Effectively, as far as
the fiber sheets is concerned, for them they are under the action of radial expansion. And,
the sheets themselves depending on how many layers of these sheets is there; all these
sheets have to be all these sheets are subjected to tension. And, in order that the concrete
fail, it is important that all these sheets fail. So, this is one of the methods where FRP
sheets are used in several layers, wrapped around concrete columns to increase the load
carrying capacity of the deteriorated reinforced concrete column.

1003
(Refer Slide Time: 43:13)

Schematically, the process is shown here; where the existing reinforced concrete column
is wrapped using FRP sheets, which are bonded using a resin or a matrix. So, in this case
the FRP rod is not manufactured; it is not something like an FRP rod is not manufactured
in the plant, but we get a composite made of FRP sheets and the matrix applied at site.
Of course, at the end we could apply surface protection as far as matrix is concerned in
order to protect the matrix as well as the fibers, from external influences such as water,
air and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:04)

1004
Similarly, we can use FRP sheets for strengthening being slab constructions and
depending on what we want, we could use any of the configurations shown here.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:16)

This is a picture of strengthening of beams using FRP sheets and in this cases, well the
FRP sheets applied in certain layers or a certain number of layers which have to be
designed. And, these layers are held in position using appropriate matrix material. And,
these fabrics are they are reinforced, in both directions; it is not unidirectional material in
that sense.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:51)

1005
Continuing with the examples, we have CFRM with epoxy coated bars in the case of
girders which is shown here. In this case as well as in a pre-stressed, pre-cast concrete
element has been shown here.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:05)

There is no reason that as far as the application of CFRM in reinforced construction is

concerned, it should be remembered that these cannot be bend or treated at site. And,
therefore, all bent CFRM and the stirrups need to be manufactured in the plant and then
brought to site.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:28)

1006
And, there is no reason why CFRM cannot be used with traditional reinforcement or
epoxy coated bars and so on in RC members or pre-stress concrete members. And, given
their high strength the CFRM or an ideal material for use in pre-stress concrete as I
shown here. So, this tendon here which is going to be used for pre-stressing could be a
CFRM and the other reinforcement is simple epoxy coated bars or normal bars whatever
we want.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:08)

Coming to the close of the discussion today, let me once again acknowledge all the help
and the material which I am using from the JSCE and my friends and colleagues
professor Uomoto, Kato and Doctor Bajpai of the department civil engineering at IIT
Kanpur; who have kindly allowed me to modify and use some of the slides and from the
publication in the ASCE.

1007
(Refer Slide Time: 46:33)

Now, at the end, this is the some of the references that one may use in order to learn
more about fiber reinforced plastics and their use in civil engineering.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:44)

1008
(Refer Slide Time: 46:49)

And, before we close some of the things which one could do a little bit more of study and
thought. We could derive relation, we could derive equations relating the load sharing,
modulus of velocity, critical fiber volumes, shear modulus and so on for CFRM; as a
function of the properties of the matrix in the fibers. Some small derivations were shown
in the discussion today for longitudinal loading. But a lot more can be derived if we use
the same principles and try to understand the shear modulus of a composite material or
the behaviour as far as the transverse loading is concerned. We may try to answer the
question as to why are fibrous materials stronger than bulk materials? We could study
the test methods for the test of CFRM, which has been discussed.

We talked about the creep test, we talked about durability test, we talked about fatigue
test and it is important to understand, what exactly is the nature of the test, which need to
be carried out. We can study the design and fabrication of the ends or the chucks that
hold a specimen in a tensile or a tensile fatigue or a creep test. So that we better
understand the kind of discussion that we had as far as the importance of holding this
specimen together or holding the specimen in place; while carrying out loads or while
applying the loads on the specimen is concerned. This is important because the stress
levels are much higher than that of steel. And therefore, it is important that the chucks
are designed and fabricated in an appropriate manner.

1009
(Refer Slide Time: 48:43)

With this, we come to an end for the discussion today.

Thank you.

1010
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 31
Grouting and importance of formwork in concrete construction

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

[FL] and welcome to this lecture in this module of concrete engineering and technology
where, we are talking of divorce subjects ranging from fundamentals of concrete,
proportioning of concrete mixes, stages in concrete constructions, special concretes,
mechanisms a deterioration, reinforcement in concrete structures in maintenance. The
idea basically beam to have a bird’s eye view of the different aspects of concrete and
concrete construction including maintenance that a modern day concrete engineer is
expected to be familiar with.

1011
(Refer Slide Time: 01:05)

In addition to the topics that we have covered here there are some topics which are of
special interest, the concrete engineers and do not really fall under the embed of
traditional concrete engineering. But, have been said that some understanding of these
topics is absolutely integral and vital to ensure quality concrete construction.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:42)

And today we will focus on 2 such subjects. One of them being grouting. The second
will be special formworks. So, we know but, formwork is we will be talking about some

1012
special issues related to formworks; developments in the formwork engineering if you
want to call it that have taken place in the last couple of years.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:58)

So, now starting the discussion with grouting. What is a grout? It is defined or it can be
defined as a fluid material designed to be introduced into a cavity for the purpose of
filling it. Further, the material should subsequently harden and prevent ingress of
deleterious material into the cavity.

So, in a manner of speaking when the dentist fills the cavity with some material it is also
grouting, accept that in most cases he does not apply any pressure or the pressure applied
is limited to pressure applied by the hand that in are a kind of work that is in the kind of
civil engineering that we talking about. It would be basically application of mortar, that
is what we do when we apply mortar to a surface of quick work or concrete and so on.
However, when it is grouting typically there is special associated with it, we fill the
cavity with the fluid material under pressure and that material hardens in the cavity.

1013
(Refer Slide Time: 03:10)

In the context of cement concrete, grout may be considered to be made of water, cement,
sand, admixtures, fly ash and sometimes fine gravel. Now, fly ash in mineral admixture.
It can be used, it may not be used. When we said admixtures here, we are typically
referring to chemical admixtures which could be water reducing agents, accelerates at
time and so on. And at times other than the sand which is having a certain (( )) size we
could use slightly bigger particles than that and still use it in grouting.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:55)

1014
Now, coming to the applications of cement grout as for as civil engineering is concerned.
One of them is in pre stress concrete, the other reason preplaced aggregate concrete and
the third is crack preliminary repair works besides several where applications which are
not traditionally which are not really in the embed of concrete engineering. Coming to
pre-stress concrete, we had talked about at sometimes that there are 2 kinds of pre-
stressed in concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:25)

One is pre-tensioned where, tension is applied tendons focused in a concrete and after the
concrete is placed it is allowed to harden and when it attains sufficient strength, the
stands are released that is, the tension in the stands is then transferred from the steel to
the concrete or at least a part of it is transferred the concrete and by that token the tension
in this steel tendons reduces is to some extent. Coming to post tension systems

1015
(Refer Slide Time: 04:54)

In this case after the concrete placed it has harden tendons has obtained how many
minimum compress strength, tendons are placed in preplaced ducts and tensioned. So,
basically the ducts are already in place at the time when the concrete is casted. The pre-
compression is transmitted from the steel to concrete by a suitable anchorage device at
the end blocks. So, this is the principle of post tensioned concrete.

And in the later case which is post tension system, the remaining space in the duct is
filled with grouted times. So, basically what is happening is that, if we have a duct we
have a certain amount of space which gets occupied by the tendons and the remaining
space here, this space is what we seek to fill with grout.

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(Refer Slide Time: 05:54)

As far as the post tensioning method is concerned: the ducts are left in position at the
time of passing the concrete, reinforcing tendons are placed in the duct after the concrete
has been cast, the ducts prevent contact between the concrete and the tendons during
tensioning, unlike pre-tensioning the tendons are pulled with reaction against the harden
concrete and that is why we need a certain amount of strength in the concrete before the
tensioning can be done.

In cases when the ducts are filled with grout the whole system is known as bonded post
tensioning and that is what we talked about in the previous sketch that we made. In the
case of unbounded post tensioning the ducts are not grouted and the tendons have then
tension solely by the and anchorages. And in this contacts I would like you to look up the
systems that have been used in external pre-stressing. So, external pre-stressing is a
completely different thought process compared to normal pre-stressing in terms of
pretension and post tension that we talked about just now. In these sense that these
tendons are placed outside the member which is been pre-compressed. We will talked
about a little bit when we talk about some discussion on external pre-stressing would
take place, when we talk about repair systems is one of the method that is often used as a
rehabilitation tool.

1017
(Refer Slide Time: 07:27)

Now, coming to the performance and properties of a cement grout. After all when are
grouting, a duct trying to fill this space in the duct which is left after the tendons have
been placed we need to have a certain performance, we need to have grout which fulfills
certain criteria. One of then obviously is the is of mixing the materials should be such
there it can be easily mixed. Secondly, it should be flowable. Unless the grout is
flowable, it will difficult to push the grout into the duct.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:10)

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And please remember that these ducts are often several meters longs. So, if we have a
concrete guarder which is let say 20 meters long, what we would expect is that the
grouting operation should starts here, the grout would accepted to flow to a reasonable
distance may not be the entire 20 meters because we could be trying to grout though
multiple locations but, still they would be a substantial distance involved for the grout to
be able to flow and that is why we need to have flowable grout. At the same time if the
grout is not having a flowing consistency it would be difficult to even use normal pumps
in the construction process.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:55)

Another property for the grout which would be of interest was is the setting time. Like all
concrete construction, the grout once it is re-stress final location we would like the
system to set and therefore, the setting time is of great importance as far as grouts are
concerned.

1019
(Refer Slide Time: 09:15)

Segregation or bleeding specially under pressure. Grout like any cementitious composite
that we have talking about tends to bleed. That is, water tends to separate out from the
constituent materials and this tendency for segregation is sometimes enhanced when the
material is beam moved under pressure. So, to have to be able study or we should have a
bench mark on what is an acceptable level of bleeding.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:48)

Shrinkage compensated - Again, grouts because they do not have cores segregate.
Proportionally speaking the volume of cement is much higher and therefore, there is a

1020
tendency for the grout to shrink unless special measures are taken to admixtures so on.
To make and design shrinkage compression grouts that is non-shrink out do not have
which do not shrinkage.

So, therefore we do not test which will determine the shrinkage that grout under goes and
have specification is which will say that only a certain amount of shrinkage is acceptable.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:33)

Durability and strength are obviously requirements in any cement based construction and
grouting in post tension concrete, ducts is no acceptation we need or we made specified
that for the grout that we will use it is the certain strength at a certain point time whether
it is 28 days of 7 days or 3 days or whatever the time being.

Corrosion inhibition: Remember that the function of grout is that it should surround the
tendon and one of the purpose of having the cementitious grout is to protect this tendon
against corrosion. Therefore, effort is sometimes made to use a corrosion inhibitor. Night
rites are example of non-corrosion inhibitor and they are used sometimes in the grout in
order to impart operator corrosion resistance to be tendons. Resistance to chemical attack
is an important issue especially for dealing with chemical grouts or specially dealing
with reason based outs rather than cementitious grouts. As far as specification are
concerned for example, in India highest on 1343 mentions some of the properties that are
required as far as grouting in pre-stress concrete construction are concerned in sections
12.3.1 and 12.3.2.

1021
(Refer Slide Time: 12:15)

As far as ASTM standards are concerned, some examples or some performance

parameters are that the setting time should be more than 3 hours but, less than 12 hours.
Strength of the grout tested with 15 mm, specimens at 7 days is required to be at least 21
MPa and a 28 days is 35 MPa. Similarly, the volume changes: there are specifications on
how much is acceptable volume change at 28 days. It should be remember that when it
comes to setting time or grout strength or volume change this test have to be specially
design and I would request you these refer and read these standards in order to be able to
understand and appreciate the tests completely. It is important to note how the setting
time of grout is determined and how it is different from that of the setting time of
cement. With this connection we will also recall that we have talked about the setting
time of concrete and that again was a very special method, not really same as testing the
setting time as cement but, in principle the same that is based on penetration resistance
and same is the story with strength and volume changes for as grouts are concerned.

1022
(Refer Slide Time: 13:44)

Now, this here is an illustrating example taken from one of the references. So, the pre-
stress tendons are not necessarily straight and they could follow the profile which
sometimes looks like this. And these here are vent holes which help us remove the air
from the duct while the grout has been moved in and then of course, we can try to take
pictures of cross sections at different places and try to see whether or not the duct has
been fully filled with grout.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:28)

1023
This here is an illustrating example of water which is a kind of equipment that is used.
We have a mixing hopper here where the material is being mixed. Through a screen the
material listed into a hopper and then, to a pump and finally, to the inlet where the grout
is transferred from the mechanical system here to be concrete duct. This here is another
example where we can see that there is a person involved at the end of it carrying out the
grouting operation and the quality of grouting done is very much related to this skilled of
the percent involved.

So, there is no denial that work men shape is one of the very important determinants as
far as quality of grout is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:21)

As far as the operation for superstructure tendons is concerned, grouting is done through
series of pre decided inlet. Grout should be injected steadily and consistently into the
first inlet. So, we cannot have intermediate supply of grouting, we cannot just grout a
little bit stop then, start grouting again that unnecessarily needs to air pockets in the
grouting systems and that is very highly understandable. So, we must ensure that the
grouting is carried out steadily and consistently once the operation has started.

1024
(Refer Slide Time: 15:55)

When a consistent flow is seen through the first intermediate outlet. So, there are series
of outlets and we are trying to pump the grout into the first outlet and as the grout
immerges in the second outlet of the first into which is outlet the first outlet can be
closed and then we used the second point as the inlet to push the grout further and this
processes carried on till all the grouting completed. As we say here injection is continued
until all intermediate outlets have been closed.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:27)

1025
As far as pre-grouting operations for quality assurance of the whole program is
concerned even before the tendons are placed. So, what happens is that if we have a
concrete beam and we have this duct where we want to place that pre-stressing tendons
later on. At the time of casting the concrete here, vibrating it in all that can process these
ducts may get deformed and if these ducts deformed during the concreting process it will
become difficult for the tendons to be placed. And this is the kind of check which is
being done here that is even before the tendons are placed clearance in the ducts should
be checked. It should be ensured that the tendons can be easily placed in the duct.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:14)

Prior to the grouting, tendon ducts, grout inlets and outlets and anchors whatever they are
should be examine for any debris and or water. They need to be removed to avoid
blockages and or dilution of the grout.

All connection from the grout hose to the inlets and outlets should be airtight and free
dirt. Ducts should be tested using compressed air to ensure that there are no leaks in duct
connections or joints. Now, how do we do that? One way of doing that is pressurize the
duct system to a certain level and then have an acceptable loss in pressure at a certain
time. So, what will happen is that, if we have a duct system here we surrounded by
concrete and so on, it obviously has some tendons in it and this void has to be filled.
They will be some obvious leaks in the ducts but, these leaks in the ducts and so on
cannot exceed a certain value and in order to determine whether there is any problem in

1026
that connection. If we pressurize this air here, if we pressurize the system here, what we
will get over time is that the pressure will drop. Now, this drop if it is too much, if this
drop is connection stable then of course, we need to carry out repair work on the duct
system before we do the ground. Therefore, what we need to do is to say that we will
carry out the test for a certain period of time and the pressure drop during that time
should not exceed a certain pre-determined or an acceptable level.

So this is how we can ensure an airtight duct system. It is not air tight in this scientific
sense of the word but, it is airtight in engineering sense of the word.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:27)

As far as the quality of grouting is concerned very high grouting pressures could leads to
failures of ducts and in cracking concrete. Flushing in a partially completed grouting
operation is generally not preferred. We cannot stop the grouting operation and then, try
to flush it out and then, commence again because of the obvious reason that the flushing
may not ensure all the removable of grout and that would become a problem if you want
to go back again and grout a system.

Before the grouting of course, the ducts needs to be flushed and cleaned as we discussed.
If of course, the flow time that is the flow ability of the grout which is typically
measured using normal finals which could be well finals. And specification as given in
terms of the acceptable flow time if the flow time exceeds the limit that is the grout is
more viscous then is acceptable that test can be repeated once. But, no ad hoc measures

1027
such as, addition or reduction of water or chemical admixtures should be resorted to even
though grouting operation carried out in the field.

The field engineers should not resort to ad hoc measures. A grout design for a certain
specification if it is not performing in the field for whatever reason it could be, it could
be temperature, it could be compatibility of materials, it could be change in material and
so on. A proper study should be carried out and then only that grouting operation should
be continuity because ad hoc measures could lead to problems later on in the
maintenance of the structure. Complete grouting should be ensured using volume
balance or any other method. After the grout set the tendon should be respected word,
should be measured and filled using vacuum grouting with whatever other method is
available.

So, basically there is very little that we can do once we are grouting a post tension pre-
stress concrete tendon. We do not know if all the void, if all this space in the duct which
was supposed to be occupied by the grout has been occupied by the grout other than by
doing some kind of volume balance or carrying out non destructed tests which could be
carried out while the grouting operation is being carried out or after the grouter set and
then, we look for pockets of air.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:58)

As far as bleeding is concerned, bleed water appears at the surface while the grout is still
plastic. And in a grouting application this water cannot escapes and there is no way that

1028
we can take it out, it will therefore create a zone of weakness in the duct wherever it
accumulates.

As we have seen in these of concrete, bleeding is a related to the water content and water
cement ratio of the mix and of course, improper or incomplete mixing. Similarly,
shrinkage in grouts can also give rise to spaces in the duct which can allow ingress of
deleterious substances and that is why we need to ensure that grouts need requirements
in terms of bleeding and shrinkage in addition to whatever other criteria we may choose.

So far we have discussed the issue of grouting in post tension pre-stress concrete
tendons. The principle of grouting is the same but, now let us spend a little bit of time
talking about grouting in a pre-placed aggregate concrete system.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:01)

Now, as the name suggest preplaced aggregate concrete refers to a situation where
wherever we want the concrete instead of trying to cast the concrete there we placed
aggregate first and then, try to fill this space with cement mortar. So, in engineering
terms this is what is called preplaced aggregate concrete because at the end of it what we
get is a concrete system which comprise course segregate embedded in mortar accept
that they were not mixed to begin with only the aggregate first placed first and the mortar
was pumped in at the later point of time.

1029
Now, when we are considering the requirements of the grouting material, that is the
mortar that we used to fill the system. The principles of grouting good apply that is we
would be interested to know, what is the size of the course segregate and the particle size
distribution which will determine the characteristics of the void space? If we have very
small particles the amount of void space will be different compared to having larger
particles. In the case of concrete construction we deal with particle sizes which could be
as much as 20 mm or 25 mm or sometime we may be 40 mm. Sand on the other hand is
defined as material which is lower than about say 4.5 mm.

So, it is not so easy to decide the characteristics of the grout unless we know what is the
kind of void system that we are dealing with which is related to the maximum size and
the particle size distribution of the aggregate that we have used.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:17)

Now, having said that for a given system we need to have a certain flowability of the
grout and that is again very similar to the kind of flowability that we were talking about
when we talked of grouting in the case of ducts in post tension concrete construction. As
far as the construction is concerned in preplaced aggregate concrete where do we start
the grouting process, whether we take a pipe and just let the gout flow under gravity
filling this spaces here or we try to push the grout under pressure from below. If we are
pushing the grouting top there is a possibility that the grout might not reach all the spaces
whereas, if you pushing it from the bottom the chances are that we would be able to

1030
accomplish higher filling even though it is more difficult to do. So, there are issues
related to quick preplaced aggregate concrete but, in this limited discussion that we have
I am just trying to show it as an illustrative example relative to grouting. As far as
subject is concerned is lot more to study than of course this.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:40)

Now, let me just quickly go over the third example of grouting that we are chosen to talk
about that is grouting for feeling of cracks in repair rehabilitation strategy. So, if we look
at a concrete crack we could typically see something like this. The cracks could be wider,
narrower at the surface and so on. What we often do not know is how deep the cracks
and therefore, do not have any idea as far as how much volume of the mortar or the grout
will be required to fill these cracks. How this filling process works is shown here in this
picture. We see that the cracks are sealed; these are nibbles which are left in place and
used for the grouting operation. So, once we start filling here, the grout appears starts
flowing inside the concrete and then appears in neighboring nibbles and we close those
nibbles and start from different places cracking system ensuring that the entire cracks
system has been filled with the grout.

So, finally we have a system which looks a little agree because of this kind of patch work
along the cracks and that needs to be painted. Obviously, in this cases will be depending
on the width of the cracks. We would need to have different specifications for the

1031
flowability of the grout that we can deal with. A grout which could flow into a crack
width of this magnitude will not suffice if you are trying to fill cracks of this magnitude.

So, these are the kind of balancing acts that an engineer at site means to be play. In order
to grout a crack system one has to decide what is the kind of specification, what is the
kind of parameter that you would use to control the quality or control the performance of
the grout? Now, with this discussion we come to an close on the first part of our
discussion today which was on grouting. Now, continuing or discussion we talk a little
bit about special formwork.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:00)

Now, before we talk of special formworks, we must know what is formwork. All look at
the form work definition and the function once again.

1032
(Refer Slide Time: 29:14)

Formwork really refers to any structure which is put in place before concrete is placed, in
ordered that the concrete that is cast inside is given a certain shape. Now, therefore this
structure which is the temporary structure that is the form work which is removed after
the concrete gains sufficient strength should be such that it is able to withstand the
normal loads of construction without impairing the properties of the concrete. Even
though it is a temporary system, it is an important system to ensure that the final product
of concrete member or the structure that we are taking out has a good quality is
important at the form work that we have is of the quality. And therefore, this system also
needs to be appropriately designed to ensure that whatever we accept form it in terms of
shape, size, tolerance and so on is met.

1033
(Refer Slide Time: 30:27)

Now, re-iterating these requirements it should be able to sustain the loads during
construction and that is more or less similar to that of structural design. The kind of loads
that could be are concrete weight and pressure, the live load of equipment that is vibrator
and so on, personal that is speed to moving around on the form work or on the concrete
during construction, you can think in terms of slab while it is being cast, not only there
will be a dead weight of the concrete of the slab but, also there will be some vibrators
and other equipments which should be on it, there will be people moving around to
ensure that the concrete is properly cast, vibrated, compacted and so on. And finally,
there will be people moving around even after that for curing, inspection and all those
kind of purposes while the concrete is still not strong enough. Once it is strong enough it
has sufficient strength the formwork in it needs to be removed. How long does it takes is
a different matter. It depends on the kind of properties with the concrete, what other kind
of strength development so on.

The formwork should be free from leaks. That is, the joints in the plates of the form work
whether the they embed of timber or whether they made of plywood or steel, the joint
should be free from leaks. They should be properly sealed because leaks in the form
work are the major source for honeycombs and honeycombs is something which is
highly deleterious and as a direct paring on the durability of the structure. Should be true
in shape, unless the form work is true in shape there is no way that we can have a
concrete structure which will be true in shape. So, if a wall has to be vertical the slab has

1034
to be flat then, it is important that the formwork has the right kind of tolerances that is,
those place are not having undulations because if those plates or parallels have
undulations the concrete that is cast against them will obviously reflect that. The
formwork should between lest it discolor the concrete surface or impart the properties
which are not desirable from the settings or any other point of view. Now, this is the
generally discussion on any kind of formwork.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:54)

We must also remember that once the concrete is cast against formwork that is if we
have this as my formwork panel against which some concrete is been cast and this
concrete has reinforcement then, this distance here the concrete here is really the cover
concrete. We must remember that depending on whatever happens at the formwork level
or in the formwork the properties of the concrete in this portion here are the once that are
likely to change closed. Formwork is not likely affects the properties of main body
concrete but, it has a direct bearing on the properties of cover concrete. And the
properties of cover concrete or a very important issue and then we are talking in terms of
durability of concrete structures. Conversely speaking therefore, if we want durable
structures we need to have put quality cover concrete and in order to ensure good quality
cover concrete we need to have good quality formwork and that is what gives raise to
special formworks and the whole lot of discussion relating to that aspect. Some of it
which we will briefly discuss from this point onwards.

1035
(Refer Slide Time: 34:19)

Now, coming to special from works. Let us first talk in terms of what is called permanent
formwork. Temporary formwork is the normal formwork which is removed after the
concrete has achieved sufficient strength. Permanent formwork on the other hand
contains the placed concrete, molds it to the required dimension and remains in place for
life of restructure. That is, this formwork is not removed after the concrete has been cast
it becomes part of the concrete remember itself.

Now, in this there could be two kinds of permanent formwork, what can be called as an
participating formwork and one is participating formwork in which case a predetermined
contribution is may it to the strength of the structure. That is, the form work is part of the
is structure behavior as far as the concrete number is concerned and of course, then we
can have a non-participating formwork where it makes no contribution at the strengths
but, provides only additional benefits in terms of durability, finish and insulation and all
that can be.

Now, let me explain this is sure little bit again. Consider a column with reinforcement
and whatever it is. If this was the normal concrete that we used, what we would do
normally to cast this column against panels which could be made of plywood or steel and
we remove these plates.

1036
(Refer Slide Time: 36:00)

This is the normal construction that we would do. As against that, if the panels were now
such that as against that, if these panels were now such that they would remain as a part
of the column and not removed then, we can expect two things. One is that this panel is
depending on it is thickness, the material, the kind of structural properties and so on.
This panels are considered when we talk in terms of the load carrying action or the load
bearing action of this column is concerned. The other option of course, the other
possibility of course, is that these panels are not considered when we talking in terms of
the load carrying mechanism of the column and the same thing really holds for the beams
as well.

So, we have participating permanent formwork and non-participating permanent

formwork. That formwork differs from regular formwork, in that sense that it becomes a
permanent part of a structure and is not struck of after the concrete has hardened and
gain sufficient strength.

1037
(Refer Slide Time: 37:43)

Now, an advantage of using this kind of formwork system is that it could contribute to
some kind of reduction in cost and time because we do not have to wait for striking of
formwork. The entire processes for as striking of the formwork is simply not there and
once the concrete has been cast we can proceed with the other operations. It eliminates
the need for doing any kind of false work, reduces the skill level needed at site because
formwork is skilled operation erecting the formwork is a skilled operation. Most of these
panels that are made are precast or prefabricated panels which are used in the
construction and therefore, the skill level required in the direction is different and of a
much smaller magnitude compared to erecting normal formworks. Increases the potential
for is standardization and reputation. Now, this is something which is very important as
for as civil engineering construction is concerned that if we have standardization in sizes
then, it becomes lot easier for all engineers to have certain discipline as far as quality
control is concerned.

Flexibility in concrete construction is of course, the principle reason why concrete is a

popular material but, if we have some kind of standardization as far as sizes and so on
concerned it will help in ensuring better quality control. Speeds up direction time,
eliminates the need to strike formwork and false work, improve the curing of concrete
and reduces the shrinkage cracks. Obviously, the purpose of curing is to ensure that
water from the concrete does not escape into the atmosphere and if you have permanent
formwork then, what we have ensured is that the passage of water to the atmosphere

1038
becomes all that more all that must more difficult. Ensures adequate cover and associated
benefits, as we try to draw in the previous pictured. Having permanent form work
effectively adds to the covered thickness or depending on how would designer use the
cover thickness we can have a reinforcing bar here

(Refer Slide Time: 39:58)

We have normal concrete up to this point and this is our traditional cover concrete and if
beyond this point we have a permanent formwork of a certain amount of thickness. Now,
whether this thickness here of the permanent formwork is to be counted towards the
cover thickness or not is decision which designer has to take. It has to have certain
sanction as far as specifications and design methods are concerned. But, none the less it
should be bond in mind that we end of it this permanent formwork is also contributed to
protect in the reinforcement from the environment outside. Permanent formworks can be
used to provide decorative finish surfaces because this per side of the panel is not cost
into. It can be used to provide decorative finish surfaces because they outside of the
panel we can have designs, we can have colors or what were we want.

1039
(Refer Slide Time: 41:14)

Now, let me talk about timber or plywood which is one of the most common materials
used for normal formwork is not really suited for permanent formwork construction
because it absorbs water, swells and may rot over a period of time and result in
unacceptable odour. So, these are the kind of problems that normal plywood applications
would have if we were to allow them to be part of the concrete structure and that is why
we not have them which gives us a pointer as to what are the kind of materials that we
are looking for when we are talking in terms of permanent formwork.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:45)

1040
The material should be such that they have sufficient strength to carry the loads
including the hydrostatic pressure of concrete that mean act, they must have sufficient
durability, they could be therefore, made of high density fiber reinforced sheets. It could
be cement based fiber reinforced rigid sheet. Fibers are predominantly reinforced one
direction to up to optimize load to span to characteristics in those panels and there should
be a compatibility of the formwork panels with the concrete itself.

(Refer Slide Time: 42:26)

With this discussion in mind let us take a look at some of the examples. Here, we has
talking in terms of an example where a rigid plastic sheet is being used as a permanent
formwork and we can see normal reinforcement here and these kind of anchors which
are going to help the formwork remain as part of the concrete constructions.

So, as far as rigid plastic sheets are concerned, they are like weight and durable. It is
vulnerable however to damage from immersion or intern vibrators. So, if we are casting
the concrete against this kind of formwork and we use internal vibrators. Those vibrators
will obviously impact the form work sheet as well and therefore, unless the sheet are a
strong enough able to with standard vibrator impact the formwork sheets a likely to be
done and that is something which we need to be careful about either by choosing the
concrete that we use properly. We could use self-compacting kind of concretes which do
not require internal vibrators and ten use these sheets or we place something to ensure
that the joints and edges of the rigid plastic sheet are properly sealed with the tapes.

1041
(Refer Slide Time: 43:53)

Here is another example where fibers reinforcing concrete panels are used as permanent
formwork. So, here we can see these panels which are been placed between pre-stressed
girders during reinforce concrete construction. Now, this picture here shows the
fabrication of such a panel and we can see these kind of a wire mesh or a fiber mesh and
normal cement mortar has been placed and the panel has been fabricated. Of course,
there is a possibility that there can be several layers of this fabric to reinforce the
permanent formwork panel.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:49)

1042
Here an example of erection of permanent form work and we can see how the panels are
been placed in position.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:58)

Other materials as far as permanent formwork is concerned could be galvanized iron

sheets which are strong in readily available and different shapes. Corrosion over a long
time could be a problem in the case of using sheets in therefore, we need to be careful as
to what kind of tests are carried out to ensure the durability of these sheets. Concrete
panels which are pre casts, highly compatible with concrete construction.

We have the flexibility in shape are excellent that advantages and that context. However,
this concrete finals or prone to cracking and need to be reinforced with fibers and fabric,
like this saw in the previous pictures and here as an example of these panels being
erected in placed in position for the concrete to be cast. And we have glass fiber
reinforced concrete panels in which case we have reach mortar with alkali resistant glass
fibers prayer into a single mold and this spraying business remains as of shotcrete and
fiber reinforced shotcrete and we have done earlier and panels made in this manner can
be used as permanent formwork much in the manner as being shown here.

1043
(Refer Slide Time: 46:18)

Indeed, when we are trying to work in terms of permanent formwork panels. There have
to be tests in order to ensure that those panels can indeed take the kind of load that will
act on them during construction and during the early stages when the concrete has not
developed whole strength. As far as participating formwork is concerned where that
formwork is also expected to be a part of the load bearing action of the concrete member.
We need to have tests to figure out how to understand these structural behavior of these
columns and this pictures here showed 2 tests, a static test kind of situation here to figure
out or to understand how the panel deforms under the application of load and of course,
there can also be a situation and other than a static test there we can also be a drop
weight type of an impact setup which is shown in the picture right where, we try to
understand the impact resistance of a panel.

1044
(Refer Slide Time: 47:31)

Now, coming to another category of formwork which is not necessarily permanent. We

have absorbing form work and in this case we use them to get better surface finish and
quality enhancement of the cover concrete. This formworks have a layer of absorbing
material on the surface of normal formwork. So, what we really have is a panel of
normal formwork on which an absorbing layer is fixed and then the concrete is cast. So,
basically instead of casting this concrete against this normal formwork panel, an
absorbing layer is in introduced in between which is attached to the formwork and is
removed along with the formwork. Like the formwork like the formwork this absorbing
layer also has certain number of reputation cycles that it can be reused.

Now, this absorbing layer allows the air and water from the concrete to escape and this
provides a better finish and high durability for the cover concrete. So, what is happening
is that if we are able to get the water in this part of concrete which is the cover concrete
because we have reinforcing bar somewhere here, if we are able to get the water of this
layer out from the system, it will enhance the quality of the cover concrete, it will reduce
the water cement ratio in that region and that is precise we want absorbing form work
does. Water from this region is in absorbed pipe this formwork and therefore, we get a
cover concrete which has a water cement ratio which is lower than the water cement ratio
in the main body concrete and that enhances the durability of the structured which is
made with this kind of absorbing.

1045
Now, what kind of absorbing material is good? What kind of absorbing material can be
used? How many times it can be recycled? What is the economics of the whole process?
Is a detailed subject, which cannot be obviously covered when we are just trying to give
a bird’s eye view of a special formwork and that we can leave to someone who is
interested to the kind of feeding.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:07)

(Refer Slide Time: 50:12)

Now, coming to the close of our discussion, let us try to take some questions which we
can talk about later on. We could carry out a comparative steady of sum of this

1046
specification of grouting materials and performance evaluation of grouts. So, please
remember that the grouting materials and the grout are different things. The grouting
materials can have different tests, different specifications and grout again can have
different tests and different specifications. And what we are talking about here is to carry
out the comparative study of some of this specification in this regard. We could list tests
which are required to be carried out for the evaluation of the grouts and grouting
materials. We could talk in terms of reading case studies for application of preplaced
aggregate concrete and crack injection grouting that we saw briefly today.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:00)

On the issue of formworks, I would request you to study available literature or the design
of formwork systems. Very often the durability of concrete structures is compromised
because the temporary formwork system is not appropriately designed. We could make a
list of performance parameters for the formwork systems and list what are the issues that
formwork design should address when dealing with high flowability concretes which are
becoming more and more increasingly used in concrete construction.

Now, we could read case studies for application of permanent absorbing formworks and
make a list of commercially available materials that can be used in making, absorbing
formwork of a that matter. Some of the materials that is available to be used as
permanent formwork, try to study the technical details as well as the economics of their

1047
use and there implications in terms of the durability of concrete which is finally
achieved. With that we come to an end of the discussion today.

Thank you.

1048
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 32
Carbonation and freezing and thawing in concrete structures

(Refer Slide Time: 00:23)

[FL] and welcome to another lecture in our module of concrete engineering and
technology where we are talking about different aspects of concrete; beginning with the
fundamentals, proportioning of mixes, stages in construction, special concretes
deterioration, reinforcement and maintenance.

1049
(Refer Slide Time: 00:36)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:43)

And, when we talked about some of the mechanisms of deterioration in concrete, we

have talked about corrosion of reinforcement and alkali aggregate reaction; including a
brief treatment of the mechanisms involved, preventive methods, implications and so on
and so forth. In our discussion today, we will be talking about two other mechanisms;
carbonation and the deterioration of concrete on account of cyclic freezing and thawing.
We had mentioned carbonation and passing, when we were talking about reinforcement
corrosion in reinforced concrete structures.

1050
Following the discussion on carbonation and freezing and thawing, we will also talk
about a little bit about the concept of durability design. And, that is something which is
listed here as futuristic. Basically, it means that we do not do that kind of durability
design in our structural design or durability design in that sense is not a part of the
normal design process; that we go through when we design structures today. So, this
something which we would possibly lift to see in the future and that is something which
we will talk about at the end with the help of illustrative examples.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:09)

(Refer Slide Time: 02:11)

1051
Now, beginning our discussion today with the carbonation of concrete. Basically,
concrete structure exposed to the atmosphere or exposed to a certain amount of carbon
dioxide. And, this carbon dioxide can penetrate into concrete through the pores which are
there in concrete. And, these pores and pores spaces, the kind of volume of pores; all
those ideas have been talked about earlier. And, we know that on account of hydration, a
lot of calcium hydroxide is available in the pores spaces. Now, as far as carbonation is
concerned, most concrete structures or in fact all concrete structures in atmosphere are
exposed to a certain amount of carbon dioxide which is present in the atmosphere.

Now, this carbon dioxide can obviously permeate into the concrete through the pores
spaces which are there on account of the normal porosity; the genesis of which is arising
out of movement of water which is left behind after hydration and so on. So, carbonation
basically refers to the penetration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the pores
of concrete. And, this ingress needs to its reaction; that is the reaction of carbon dioxide
with calcium hydroxide, within the pores leading to formation of calcium carbonates and
bicarbonates. So, we know that there is a lot of calcium hydroxide sitting in the pores
spaces as a result of the hydration reactions.

We know that all the solid complexes in cement when they hydrate; they give rise to
calcium hydroxide. And, this calcium hydroxide is the reason for having a very high p H
of pores solution and is available within concrete. Now, the penetration of carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere into the concrete leads to this reaction here; which shows
calcium carbonates are formed and if this continues we also get calcium bicarbonates
being formed. So, basically carbonation is the process by which calcium hydroxide
within the pore solution is converted to calcium carbonates and bicarbonates; as a result
of the reaction of calcium hydroxide with the carbon dioxide.

So, in principle what happens as a result of the carbon dioxide ingress, is the
consumption of calcium hydroxide and the consequent reduction in p H of the pore
solution. So, this calcium hydroxide is responsible for the very high p H; which is in
excess of about say 12 or 13 in the pore solution. Now, naturally if calcium hydroxide
gets consumed and converted into calcium carbonates or bicarbonates, the p H of the
pore solution will go down. So, this reduction in the p H has its own implications as far
as the durability is concerned; as we shall see shortly. And, we have the second part of it

1052
which is deposition of calcium carbonate in the pores. So, this deposition of calcium
carbonate in the pores has its own implications in terms of the properties of the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:40)

Now, once we have that; now, here is a representation of what really goes on as a result
of the carbonation and concrete. So, we have a zone here, which is the closest to the
atmosphere. So, here is the atmosphere, we have this region here; which is the cover
concrete and we have this steel bar here. Now, as carbon dioxide penetrates into the
concrete and reacts with calcium hydroxide within, we can imagine or think that there is
this region here; where let us say a large amount of calcium hydroxide has been
converted to calcium carbonates.

So, in this portion here we can say that we have very little calcium hydroxide left. And,
we have a reasonably large reduction in the p H. In contrast we have a region here, which
is a still largely unaffected by the penetration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
And, we have a lot of calcium hydroxide still sitting here and the p H is still in excess of
let say 12 or 13 or whatever it is. Between these two zones, we have a transition zone
here where the p H is let us say between 9 and 12 and here we have both. Some amount
of calcium carbonate which has been found and not all calcium hydroxide has been
consumed and therefore, we have some calcium hydroxide there as well.

Please, remember that this is only a schematic representation to help us understand the
carbonation process. Basically, what we are trying to do is to say that; well, one of the

1053
functions of cover concrete is to protect the reinforcement against the corrosion. And,
since carbonation is one of the reasons for corrosion, we are trying to understand how we
can module the changes in the different zones of cover concrete to better understand a
model the process of carbonation. So, we are trying to divide the cover concrete into a
zone A B and C. Where zone A is a zone where most of the calcium hydroxide has been
consumed and a lot of calcium carbonate has been deposited. Zone C is largely
unaffected and therefore, there is practically no calcium carbonate there; its all calcium
hydroxide. And, zone B is still in the transition where some calcium carbonate is there
and there is still some calcium hydroxide.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:42)

So, with this model understanding let us try to see how the carbonation is measured in
concrete. Now, as far as the measurement of p H is concerned, one of the most simple
things we know from high school is the phenolphthalein test. We know that
phenolphthalein turns pink in high p H. So, now we have a concrete surface such as the
one that shown here and we spray phenolphthalein on it. We can identify more or less
zone here, which is pink that is this is the zone which has high p H and there is this
shown here which is colourless. And, this is the zone where the calcium hydroxide has
been converted to calcium carbonates.

So, there is depleted amount of or there is a depletion in the levels of calcium hydroxide.
And, therefore, the p H in this portion here where we can say that carbon dioxide has

1054
penetrated completely. Of course, once we look at actual situation here we can see there
are pockets, where it is difficult to identify whether the region should be classified has
pink or white. And, also this depth which we would like to measure unlike what we saw
in the previous slide, is not straight. So, these are things which an engineer has to bother
about as far as the principle is concerned it is establish that as carbon dioxide moves in
calcium hydroxide is consumed and the depth up to which this consumption has taken
place can be measured through a simple phenolphthalein spray.

This here is the example of carbonation as will occur in crack concrete. What is being
seen here, is that in addition to the carbonation which has taken place in this part which
is let us say A which is similar to this kind of an area; where carbon dioxide has
generally penetrated into the cover concrete. In addition to this carbonation has also
spread in this portion; let us say call it B. Because carbon dioxide has gone through this
crack and spread into concrete through the crack causing the calcium hydroxide in the
neighborhood of cracks also to be consumed. And, in such cases of course, a definition
of carbonation depth becomes a lot more complicated. But to deal with these
complications is part of our engineering exercise. And, once we understand the processes
then it is only a matter of making the right kind of approximations, the right kind of
models and making engineering decisions.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:53)

1055
Now, let us get back to a schematic representation once again of cover concrete as shown
here. Where we are now saying that instead of including the transition depth; we say that
well, we will simplify the matter and say that there is a carbonated depth and an
uncarbonated depth. So, we are saying that the cover concrete in the previous slide was
shown to be divided into 3 parts; the totally carbonated, partially carbonated and the
uncarbonated. In this case, now we are only saying that well let us not talk about the
partially carbonated depth; let us talk in terms of a carbonated zone and an uncarbonated
zone. The carbonated zone would appear to be white, if we attesting it with a
phenolphthalein kind of a spray and the uncarbonated zone will be pink. Now, this front
here has been purposely shown to be not necessarily straight and that is what we will see
in actual practice most of the time; if we actually carry out any phenolphthalein spray
from core or any structure that we visit.

This depth here, now how we define this depth is a different matter whether we take it to
be the maximum here, we take it to be the minimum here, we take it to be some kind of
an average; whatever it is, now this irregular nature of the carbonation front
notwithstanding. If we were to decide or draw a straight line as I shown here, then this
depth if it has a value of x; notwithstanding how we measure the x, whether we take it to
be the maximum value here or the minimum value here or the average value whatever
we do, this x is sometimes call the carbonation depth. And, naturally this carbonation
depth is a function of time as more and more time goes by the carbonation depth
increases. And, that is something which we need to keep at the back of our mind, when
we are talking about carbonation in concrete.

1056
(Refer Slide Time: 14:13)

We have seen this picture before and it basically talks in terms of how iron and concrete
is protected against corrosion, it is the high p H environment. And, therefore, a dense
film of gamma iron oxide which acts as a passivating film is formed on the surface as
shown here. And, so long as this film is intact the surface of the iron which is this place
here, is not open to the reaction with oxygen or water which may be present in the cover
concrete. But if this surface becomes available for attack, then the reinforcement is
susceptible to corrosion.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:58)

1057
So, as far as the carbonated concrete is concerned; what really happens is that once the
concrete becomes carbonated as shown here, this p H in the cover concrete is lowered
and therefore, the passivating film in this part is destabilized. And, therefore, it is as good
as not existing. And, that renders this surface of the reinforcement susceptible to
corrosion. So, as far as addressing the problem of carbonation in reinforced concrete
structures from the point of view of durability and reinforcement corrosion, it can be said
that carbonation leads to corrosion by the form that on account of the penetration of
carbon dioxide into the concrete, the calcium hydroxide is consumed. This lowers the p
H and if the p H falls below; let us say 9 or 10; the passivating film that is stable
otherwise becomes thermodynamically unstable. And, that means that the surface of
reinforcement becomes vulnerable to corrosion on account of the presence of oxygen and
water in the cover concrete.

So, the presence of oxygen and water in cover concrete is never in question. It is only
that the presence of the passivating film that prevents of physical contact between the
reinforcing surface and the oxygen and water; that prevents corrosion in normal concrete.
But once that film is destabilized the surface is vulnerable to attack.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:40)

1058
(Refer Slide Time: 17:00)

So, with this overview of the carbonation process and its ensuing implication in terms of
reinforcement corrosion; let us briefly talk about cyclic freezing and thawing in concrete.
Now, explosion of concrete to temperature variations that cause pore water to cyclically
freeze and thaw, leads to disintegration of the pore structure on account of the cycles of
expansion of pore water. We know that when the water freezes at 0 degree centigrade, it
expands. And, therefore, if the concrete is saturated with water and the temperature of
the atmosphere becomes such that the pore water freezes. It will obviously cause some
kind of expansive stresses in the surrounding pore structure. And, if this happens
cyclically, that is the water freezes and then that is the temperature in the atmosphere
rises over period of time; it thaws and freezes once again and that is what is cyclic
freezing and thawing. If that happens repeatedly over period of time, then the pore
structure actually disintegrates and this disintegration of the pore structure is what we are
talking about; when we are talking about the problem of freezing and thawing in
concrete.

These here our illustrative examples of deterioration on account of exposure to cyclic

freezing and thawing. So, we can see here whether it is this structure here or these beams
which are specimen tested in laboratory. We can see that there is a lot of disintegration in
pore structure and also pop out of aggregate. See, what really happens is, that if we have
an aggregate sitting inside hardened cement paste; on account of cyclic freezing and
thawing. This pore structure of HCP is the one that will disintegrate. The aggregate itself

1059
is not so vulnerable, even though it has its own porosity and so on; but it is the HCP of
the cement paste which is vulnerable or H it is more vulnerable. Now, on account of
repeated cycles or freezing and thawing, the HCP disintegrates. Now, if the HCP around
the aggregate disintegrates and gets removed, then the aggregates become unlocked from
their matrix and we have a pop out of aggregates.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:43)

So, one of the things that happens as far as freezing and thawing of concrete is concerned
is scaling, pop out and a general disintegration of the surface layers. Now, air entrained
concretes are known to perform better than non-air entrained concretes under conditions
of cyclic freezing and thawing. And, this is something which we have talked about
before, when we are talking in terms of proportioning of concrete mixes and even earlier
discussion on durability. The assessment in terms of whether a concrete is durable or not,
is carried out based on the measurements of the dynamic modulus of elasticity; on the
basis of a durability factor. Now, what these terms are we will probably see.

1060
(Refer Slide Time: 20:19)

As far as the dynamic modulus of elasticity is concerned I would say that you should
read appropriate ASTM standards for the details of the test. And, depending on the
relative orientation of senses placed on the surface, measurements can be made for
longitudinal, torsional or transverse vibrations; this will become clear once we see how
the measurements are done.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:46)

But, before that let us see how the test is actually carried out. This picture here shows
how the specimens are tested in terms of exposure. So, these are some kind of boxes here

1061
and in these boxes we keep concrete prisms measuring a standard size; usually 10
centimeter by 10 centimeter by 40 centimeter. And, this chamber here, the entire
chamber; all this specimens in this, they are subjected to cyclic freezing and thawing by
having a fluid here and the temperature of that fluid is varied between two extremes. So,
once we have the temperature cycle which is also frozen as far as the standard is
concerned; we know that this is the maximum temperature, this is the minimum
temperature, we know the durations of the cycles. And, therefore, we can define how
many number of cycles of temperature variation we are carrying out.

So, exposing these concrete specimens to this regime of varying temperatures, we try to
subject them to deterioration. And, while the test is being done at different points and
time, we try to estimate the modest of elasticity using a setup which is something like
this.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:17)

Now, this setup basically consists of a vibration generating unit and the vibrations
sensing unit. The generating unit is essentially an electronic audio frequency oscillator
which generates electrical audio frequency voltages, suitably modified to produce
mechanical vibrations in the concrete specimen. On the sensing side, to sense these
vibrations on the other hand, is a piezoelectric transducer which converts the mechanical
vibrations into electrical AC voltage of the same frequency.

1062
(Refer Slide Time: 22:53)

So having carried out this exercise, we try to estimate E d which is the dynamic modulus
of elasticity, on the basis of the vibrational characteristics. So, what we do is we have a
specimen here, we have a generating unit here and we have a sensing unit here and based
on whatever we measure in the sensing unit, we get an idea of the vibrational
characteristics of this specimen here. And, based on these vibrational characteristics, the
natural frequency and so on; we can use the established relationships to estimate the
material property which is E in our case, knowing the geometric properties of the
specimen. Usually, the vibrational properties or a function of the geometry and the
material properties. So, here we are trying to estimate the material properties by
measuring the vibrational properties and having a prior knowledge on the geometry on
this specimen. And, from those material properties, we are able to assess the health or the
performance or the characteristics of the concrete.

The test is frequently used to assess the durability factor which is the ratio of the E d that
is the dynamic modulus elasticity; at any point compared to the initial value. So, it is not
really only the absolute value of E d that we are talking about. But we are talking about
the change in the dynamic modulus of elasticity of that particular specimen as it occurs
over period of time. And, to that extent the method is a truly not destructive test, as the
same specimen is used to monitor the changes in the modulus of elasticity; the dynamic
modulus elasticity E d, eliminating any issues relating to the interpretation of results

1063
obtained using different specimens, all though they may be cast at the same point and
time.

If I have to explain that once again, we know that concrete develops strength over period
of time. We know that the strength of concrete is so much here, so much here and so
much here. How do we get this information? We get this information by testing cubes or
cylinders which are cast at the same time but tested here, some other cylinders are tested
here some other cylinders are tested here; we assume that the concrete is the same. And,
therefore, whether we are using different specimens or the same specimen it really does
not matter. In fact, as far as strength testing is concerned we cannot really use the same
specimen because the test is destructive in nature. In this case, here the test is truly
nondestructive; that is the same specimen.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:12)

If we go back to this setup here, the underlying assumption is the testing the concrete
using this kind of a vibrational method does not alter this specimen at all. And, therefore,
the same specimen continues to be exposed for further cycles in this chamber. And, the
same specimen can be used at different points in time to see or monitor the changes that
occurring the dynamic modulus of elasticity. And, that is a very big advantage when
using this method, because we are really using the same specimen. It is one of the
reasons, because of which we also work with the relative values rather than the absolute
values.

1064
(Refer Slide Time: 27:01)

Now, this picture here shows a schematic representation of the variation of the modulus
of elasticity with a number of cycles which is actually related to time. So, we have an
initial value of the dynamic modulus of elasticity and as the number of cycles of
exposure increases, that is with the passage of time; different concretes could show
different patterns of change in the E d value. So, if you have these 3 concretes; let us say
A B and C, we can see that the concrete A shows the minimum change in the dynamic
modulus of elasticity and this concrete C is not performing well. Now, this is the first
pass or basic discussion on freezing and thawing and how the performance of concrete
under cyclic freezing and thawing can be assessed or monitored. Now, let us come to the
second part of our discussion today, which is durability design.

1065
(Refer Slide Time: 28:12)

Now, design exercise carried out with a view to ensure that the material remains
acceptable over the service life; that is the essence of durability design. So, deliberately I
have use the word material and not structure. Because what we are talking about here is
that the material properties should still be acceptable. There are situations where we need
to talk about the structure itself and that also we will see in a subsequent example. It
involves carrying out the structural design in the usual manner and then check for
durability. It is not necessarily full-fledged design carried out based on durability
considerations but at least a check on whether a design carried out in a established
manner using principles which are known, from the structural point of view; how does it
perform in terms of the durability of the material?

Usually, in our structural design procedures, we do not consider the changes in the
material properties over time; in terms of strength, in terms of modulus of elasticity and
so on, it is only very rarely that we account for the changes in the properties over a
period of time. But with the present level of understanding, it is only natural that concept
will come in; that we should check whether or not the material will survive to a level
which is still acceptable at the end of the service life.

We should remember that the structural response depends on the material properties in
the geometry, whether we are talking in terms of deflections or strains or deformations or
cracking. All this is related to not only the lower that is applied but also the material

1066
properties of the material that we are using and the geometry of the member; whether it
is a beam or a column or slab or whatever. As far as most concrete structures are
concerned, the geometry does not change with time. It is difficult to when we saw the
situation where the beam or the column will grow or shrink insides. It is mostly the
material properties that will change in any case as far as durability design is concerned or
being able to check durability, we need to have relations in terms of geometry and
material properties with time. And, this is the essence of durability design. That is, what
kind of models that we use to relate the properties of the material with time.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:15)

Let us talk in terms of an example, which is easier to understand. Let us consider the
example of durability in freezing and thawing environment. Let us talk in terms of
durability in cyclic freezing and thawing environment that we just did a few minutes ago.
We have talked of this kind of a variation in the dynamic modulus of elasticity of
concrete. We said that the concrete has an initial value of E d and if that concrete is
tested using a certain standard, then the dynamic modulus of elasticity will reduce and
the performance of that concrete would depend on the properties of the material and so
on. So, as far as durability design is concerned, in addition to the normal ways of
specifying concrete in terms of strength, water cement ratio, cement type and content.
There could be a specifications to the effect that concrete used shall be such that when
tested in accordance with any given method, the reduction in E d shall not be more than a
certain percentage at the end of a certain number of cycles.

1067
Now, this is the kind of specification which is performance based, performance taking
into account the environment in which the concrete has been exposed. So, it is not only
specification of the concrete in terms of the strength, that well if a concrete is subjected
cyclic freezing and thawing, use air entrained concrete of 5 percent, using air entraining
agent which has a certain property, use a certain type of cement and so on. But we
basically say that well no matter what you do, at the end of it when tested in certain
manner the extent of reduction in the dynamic modulus of elasticity should not exceed
the certain number.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:30)

So, basically we lay down this critical limit and this number of cycles. Now, this part,
this part. Now, once the method of testing is fixed, the parameters such as the number of
cycles and the extent of reduction acceptable can be varied in specification from
structure to structure depending upon its importance and location and so on and so forth.
So, it is not necessary to have the same level of performance or to ask for the same level
of performance in all concrete structures. The expected level of performance could be
different depending in terms of the importance, the impact of that structure and so on and
so forth. And, therefore, in certain cases we may accept, let us say 20 percent reduction
in E d and 100 cycles; but in certain cases we may just expect 10 percent. In certain cases
may be we will expect up to 30 percent.

1068
So, depending on what kind of a structural design we do, what is the importance of the
structure that we are trying to design; this is the kind of performance requirement that we
can lay down when specifying a concrete. So, we carry out the design of the structure in
a usual manner and then see that the concrete that we are going to use also needs these
performance criteria.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:51)

Now, let us take another illustrative example that of durability against carbonation.
Again carbonation something which we just completed and we have seen, how we are
going to handle the situation in terms of defining a carbonation depth and relating it to
the cover concrete. In this case, after carrying out the structural design in the normal or
the usual manner, an additional check to ensure durability would mean checking
something similar to cover provided C, which is this value here, shall be such that it
exceed the expected depth of carbonation, which is D here, at the end of the service life
of the structure by x millimeters and this is the value x.

1069
(Refer Slide Time: 36:30)

So, we are saying that C should be greater than or equal to D plus x. In this case, I am
sure you can notice that we are not talking in terms of only the material; we are talking
of a composite action of this structure. That is, for the concrete we are trying to say, how
much is the design carbonation depth over the service life of the structure. And, saying
that the cover provided should be such that it is greater than the likely depth of
carbonation by a certain amount. Of course, in this case we need to know the rate at
which the carbonation front moves into the concrete, we need to know how this depth
changes with the period of time. So that at the end of service life where it would be and
that is an estimate that we are making even at the outside.

And, indeed the rate of movement of carbonation in front into concrete would be related
to properties of the concrete and its constituent. For example, the water cement ratio, the
conditions of exposure are important in terms of examples whether the concrete is indoor
or outdoor. Because if it is indoor it is not subjected to rain, if it is outdoor it is subjected
to rain; rain tends to make the concrete wet. And, in wet concrete carbonation progresses
at different rate then it progresses in the dry concrete. So, all these factors have to be
born in mind when we are talk in terms of how quickly or how slowly will the
carbonation front move into the concrete through the cover concrete. And, as far as the x
is concerned that is this additional depth, that is the additional uncarbonated concrete;
this can be fixed considering the importance of the structure and other considerations.

1070
So, in very important structure we may say that well x should be at least 15 millimeters,
in other structures we may say 5 millimeters is acceptable and so on. The principle thing
is that if we keep on increasing x, what we are really doing is prescribing higher and
higher cover values. And, that has its own implication in terms of the self-weight of the
structure the economic and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:36)

Now, let us examine this provision that we wrote, provide a cover depth C such that it
exceeds the expected depth of carbonation D at the end of service life, the structure by x
millimeters; a little more. The underlying assumption in this statement is; 1, if the
carbonation front reaches the location of the reinforcement, the latter is rendered
susceptible to corrosion. That is if this x becomes 0; that is the entire concrete up to the
reinforcement location is carbonated, then this steel is rendered vulnerable to corrosion.
Now, this is the first thing that we have assumed when we are making a statement of this
nature.

In addition to that what we are saying is that the reinforcement cannot be rendered
susceptible to corrosion during the service life of the structure. So, the service life of the
structure is supposed to be only till such point as the reinforcement is rendered
susceptible to corrosion. Now, whether or not corrosion actually occurs; is not something
which we are talking about. There can be obviously situations where; even if carbonation
occurs, the rates of corrosion may be such that they may be too low. They may be

1071
acceptable; but that part of service life is not being considered here. So, to that extent this
thought processes fairly conservative.

In fact, if you look at models, which talk in terms of service life of reinforce concrete
structures and reinforcement corrosion, very often we see a model which is something
like this which says that this is the life during which no corrosion takes place. And,
beyond this point the corrosion is initiated here. And reaches a point here which leads to
formation of cracks. We have talked about this when we are talking in terms of the
corrosion process within concrete and the deposition of corrosion products and the
reinforcing bars and so on. In this discussion here, we are simply ignoring this part. We
are saying that well our service life is confined to only the portion where the
reinforcement is rendered susceptible to corrosion. Whether or not corrosion occurs,
what is the rate at which the corrosion will occur, those are something which we are not
talking about.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:31)

Now, continuing our discussion with carbonation, in this case we could in fact use the
measurement of the carbonation depth at different points and time, as the part of the
normal inspection procedure. If we are inspecting a structure and we normally do that at
least in the case of more importance structures; there is a regime or there is a protocol
where the structure is normally inspected periodically. Then, as part of the inspection
protocol, we could measure the depth of carbonation that has occurred at that point in

1072
time. What that will do is to help us make a mid-course correction in cases when the
estimated and the actual depth of carbonation are different. And also obtain more
realistic estimates of the rates of carbonation.

So, what we are saying is that if we measure the rate of carbonation at some point here,
at time t is equal to t 1. And find that this is the depth of carbonation that we actually
find. This should be compared with the x 1 estimated; that is at this point t 1, what was
the estimated value of x 1? And if we compared this x 1 estimate versus x 1, actual if you
want to call that; then, we will know whether we made a conservative or a non-
conservative estimate in terms of the propagation of carbonation.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:34)

Similarly, we can make a correction and then measure this carbonation depth at t 2. And,
see we can measure the carbonation depth t 2 and so on and so forth. So, with this we
come to a close of the discussion on carbonation and durability related issues from point
of your durability design. And, before we close let us go through a few questions; what
you could do is to study available models and data which relates to carbonation rates in
concretes. In particular, I would like to draw your attention to the famous kishtani
equation, which I am sure you can find a literature. Performance of different concrete
under freezing and thawing; we made a statement that air entrained concrete perform
better. That is something which you can always verify from the observations made in

1073
different researchers, as to how much is the air content which is required; because air
content also has the implication in terms of strength.

I would like you to answer the question, how is the dynamic modulus of elasticity
different from the normal modulus of elasticity of concrete? W e have so many equations
which relate; for example, the characteristic strength of concrete or the strength of
concrete, we have the stress strain, curve of concrete and from that we can estimate
different modulus of elasticity of concrete. And, what is this dynamic modulus of
elasticity and how is it different from these different modulus of elasticity of concrete
that can be defined? I would also like you to take a look as to how the durability related
issues are addressed in present day codes. You can discuss two or three examples in
terms of the different exposure conditions, whether it is chloride penetration or chloride
induced corrosion or carbonation, freezing and thawing.

You could use different code of provisions, may be the American ACI may be the ACI
provisions or the New Zealand provisions, the Indian provisions, the European
provisions; I am trying to compare how concretes have been specified. Because at the
end of it, durability has been of concerned to engineers for a long period of time. And,
certain specifications in codes do address the problem, except that the prescription is
simply a number. That is in this case do this, in this case use at least M 30 concrete, in
this case do not have a water cement ratio more than 35 percent or 40 percent, use a
minimum cement content of 350 kilograms per cubic meter. They are not related to the
performance of the concrete; if we use that then what really happens or what will
actually happen in a given situation. So, that is what is slightly different in the concept of
durability design that we talked about just now.

And, carrying on from there we did the formulation let us say in a very simple manner.
What we did it none the less for freezing and thawing and carbonation related
deterioration. I would like you to formulate the durability design guideline for structures
exposed to chloride rich environment; that is structure, which are susceptible or
vulnerable to chloride induced reinforcement corrosion. What would be the paralyze you
could draw from our discussion on carbonation and its related carbonation front
considerations? How would you modify those, if you were dealing with chloride induced
corrosion?

1074
And, finally, I would like you to study the Japan Society of Civil Engineering guidelines
on durability design in a little bit more detail. And, see how the provisions given there in
are related to the kind of discussion that we had in this lecture. And also try to relate the
concepts of porosity diffusion, the coefficient of diffusion and so on. And, with this we
come to an end of our discussion today.

Thank you.

1075
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 33
Using recycled aggregates in concrete construction

[FL] and welcome to this lecture in our module of concrete engineering and technology.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:24)

We have been talking about fundamentals of concrete, the materials that make the
concrete, proportional’s of mixes, stages in concrete constructions, special concretes,
mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement and maintenance and so on with the view
that what is it that is a concrete engineer a person would need once you start practicing.

1076
(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

So far we have concentrated on creating good concrete, creating high performance

concrete, the specifications that govern it, the quality control issues that are involved and
so on. There is another important aspect to it and that is what we will touch upon today.
Good concrete is related to good materials proportions and metals. We have talked about
this earlier that in order to produce or in order to be able to produce good quality
concrete which is a necessary condition for producing good quality concrete
construction, we should have good materials, we should proportion them properly and
the methods that we use should be appropriate considering the actual location of
placement, the conditions of placement, the environment and so on and so forth.

What we should also emphasize and I have talked about it a little before is that a good
engineer should be able to create good concrete under marginal conditions, under ideal
conditions so much easier to be able to deliver in order to be able to deliver a quality
product. As far as civil engineering in general is concerned and concrete engineering in
particular where the work has to be done at site the material that we use is often locally
available material which may or may not be of the highest quality.

1077
(Refer Slide Time: 02:57)

The owners on being able to deliver good quality concrete for good quality construction
lies on the engineer who should be able to use marginal materials, marginal conditions of
construction and yet be able to produce good quality work. Now, obviously there is a
problem. The problem is good versus susceptible concrete. Of course, the very essence
of this discussion in good versus acceptable is in the fact that the engineers recognize
that we may not be able to produce the best quality of concrete all the time.

In fact it may not even be required to produce the best quality of concrete all the time let
us say in terms of strength, there is a specification which says that well for a particular
construction we need m 20 concrete, a concrete which has characteristics strength of 20
MPa or 25 MPa. We are capable of producing 40 MPa, 50 MPa kind of concrete but, for
that particular application 20 MPa is acceptable.

So, acceptability and good is something which we need to think about it a little more.
Acceptability is related to the actual conditions of use, the example I just gave you was
on in which their structure has been designed for 20 MPa and therefore, we should
deliver 20 MPa. Considering the fact that if we want to deliver more or if we deliver
higher strength concrete then, there could be economic implications it could become
costly and so on.

Turning the situation the other way round we must understand what are the conditions
when marginal materials can be used. Marginal materials are those materials which do

1078
not qualify the tests that are normally used for identifying good quality material. So, if a
material whether it is coarse aggregate or it is sand, it does not meet the requirements of
good quality aggregate are there places where we can use it.

In other words, what happens if we use it? How does the use of marginal materials affect
the properties of concrete? Now, the basic question is, why do we want to use marginal
materials? In this course so far we have not talked of marginal materials because we
were concentrating on producing good quality concrete, best possible quality of concrete
all the time. But, in this lecture today we will talk about marginal materials and its use
because the concrete engineer of this [the end] age one must be aware of the
responsibility in terms of the environment, in terms of energy required and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:49)

We will try to talk about using recycled concrete as an aggregate. As a backup to this
discussion remember that concrete once hardened it becomes very difficult to break in
fact, stronger the concrete more difficult it is to break it the demolisher concrete structure
meet with high strength concrete is a challenge in itself. Therefore, the higher strength
concretes that we use they become such a liability when it comes to handling them or
disposing of them at the end of their service life and that is something which are concrete
engineer in this day and age cannot forget. Structures have a no service life and at the
end of that the structure needs to be demolished or may need to be demolished in order
that a new structure can be build.

1079
We cannot simply dump the concrete that we generate out of that demolition process the
waste it is that we generate. It is our responsibility as concrete engineers to also think as
to what will happen to that waste. And today’s discussion even though it is largely based
on using hardened concrete or broken down hardened concrete which we are calling
recycled concrete as aggregate. The discussion can be extended to any such construction
in demolition waste and we sometimes see in literature reference being made to
construction and demolition phase as construction material. So, today’s discussion will
be on using recycled concrete as aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:42)

This discussion today will be largely based on a paper that was published in the Elsevier
journal of resources conservation and recycling tilted use of aggregates from recycled
construction and demolition waste in concrete by Akash Rao, KN Jha and myself and I
must express my thanks to my co authors for their effort. Akash Rao was an M.Tech
student here at IIT, Kanpur and he did his thesis in this area and professor Jha is now
teaching at IIT, Delhi

Now as far as this paper is concerned it was more of a review paper where we tried to
collect the information relating to various aspects of the use of recycled concrete as
aggregate in fresh concrete or in new concrete. The results have been taken from various
authors in the different research work that is available in literature and I would strongly
recommend that you actually go through those materials if we want more information.

1080
(Refer Slide Time: 08:49)

Now, why do we get involved with the business of moving recycled concrete as
aggregates. The first side of the discussion is a rise in demand for primary aggregates
that is, rapid industrialization in growth rates, coupled with construction boom in
developing countries has given rise to an increase in the demand for primary aggregates
and the serious effect to environmental degradation.

Aggregates at the end of it come from rocks and if we want coarse aggregate we
basically land up destroying a certain part of the environment and the environmentalist is
lists do not particularly like that and we as responsible citizens of the society have a
responsibility towards environment and we should be careful when we decide to use
natural resources which are finite. So, this is the demand side effect that is, more
construction we want to do more aggregates we will need.

The other side of it is that there is a rise in the construction in demolition waste. A lot of
our infrastructure the world over is more than say 50, 60, 70 years old and that
infrastructure needs to be replaced. As a result of that once we are demolition that
infrastructure lot of it being made of concrete, a rough estimate cells that about 70
million tons of construction and demolition waste and almost 100 million tons of mining
and quarrying waster is being generated every year.

Now, there is a need to be able to identify ways and means by which this construction
and demolition waste can be used because if we use this, the pressure on using the

1081
natural resources for any construction reduces to that extent. So, these are the two
driving forces that drive us to using recycled concrete as aggregate or construction
demolition wastes as aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:01)

As far as the production of recycled aggregates which we are calling RA is concerned,

depending on the source it could include removal of impurity such as steel, wood,
plastic, bitumen and so on. So, recycled aggregate once we are trying to produce it does
not come as a pure rock, it will contain impurities which could be steel or wood or
plastic or bitumen depending on what is the source of this recycled aggregate.

Crushing of concrete pieces to below 300 mm to facilitate further processing. So,

basically what happens is that when we are demolishing a structure we generate large
pieces or chunks of concrete. The first step is to break them down you say 300 mm and
then try to process them further so that it becomes easier to handle.

We need to pass the material through a magnetic screen to remove any remaining iron
and steel before it is ground finer. So, the process of producing recycled aggregate is
largely similar to that of producing natural aggregate or new aggregate except that a new
aggregate we do not have to be so particular about the moving inherently present
impurities. But, the process of crushing, washing, sieving and so on is largely resign. Of
course, finally the material needs to be separated as per size requirement in terms of fine

1082
material or coarse material and finally it is washed in order that it is ready or use as a
recycled aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:52)

Now, what the contaminants in the recycled aggregate could be, depends on the source
of the recycled aggregate. Recycled aggregate can be drawn from different construction
and demolition wastes including rubber, concrete bricks and tiles, reinforced concrete,
pavement and so on.

So, now depending on what is the source of our recycled aggregate the impurities or
contaminants would be different and of course, depending on some other sources there
could be different contaminants. But, basically in principle the presence of contaminants
makes it difficult to maintain a consistent quality of concrete and efforts should be
directed to keep the level of contamination at the lowest through appropriate quality
control of the recycled aggregate itself.

Basically, we need to remember that as much as the properties of coarse aggregate effect
the properties of the concrete so, also will the properties of the coarse aggregate or
recycled coarse aggregate in this case effects the properties of the final concrete. And
now since, the recycled aggregate have different contaminants different possess through
which they are being produced it is likely that the variation in the properties of the
recycled aggregate is a lot more than we normally expect in the case of normal aggregate
and that is what makes them marginal materials. They will not pass a strict compliance

1083
test for good quality material but, that does not mean that they cannot be used in certain
applications. And therefore, we need to study this subject in slightly greater detail and
today’s discussion is basically a bird’s eye view on what really needs to be done in order
that the use of recycled aggregate can be accomplished in construction projects.

(Refer Slide Time: 15:00)

Now, coming to few impurities that are present or that could be present in recycled
aggregate. One is bitumen. Now, this will be found in recycled aggregate made from
rigid pavements with bituminous overlays. Reported reduction in strength of concrete
and a reduction of 30 percent strength is been reported due to the presence of 30 percent
by volume of asphalt in recycled aggregate.

One must remember that the resin economic issue involved. It is possible for example, to
remove all asphalt which is adhering to a concrete aggregate but, that will be the process
all that more expensive. So, that is a compromise between saying that okay, I am willing
to except up to 5 percent of as fault adhering to my coarse aggregates provided I know
that that adhesion leads to a certain reduction in strength of the concrete that is the
reduction in strength or a certain amount of reduction in their strength of the concrete
that I am going to use.

Mortar is a very common ingredient that will be adhering to the aggregates and it comes
in aggregates from concrete. Normal concrete if we break it down and try to use a new
concrete as coarse aggregate of fine aggregate will have mortar adhering to the old

1084
aggregates because mortar cannot be easily removed from the surface and this often
leads to a degradation in the properties of the new concrete using these aggregates.

So, it is the extent of reduction of these properties or the extent of the compromise that
we are making that becomes very very crucial and that is so important and so case
specific that it is important that the engineers actually carry out tests and that has been
the emphasis throughout the discussion in this module that there is no substitute for
actual testing of materials and the properties of the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:33)

Organic matter is another contaminant in recycled aggregate and many organic

substances such as paper, wood, textile, fabrics, joint seals and other polymeric materials
are unstable in concrete when subjected to drying and wetting or freezing and thawing.
Continuing our discussion on contaminants in recycled aggregates. There chlorides in
sulphates and possibly other chemicals. Presence of these and other salts in recycled
aggregate has a minor effect on the properties of plane concrete but, in reinforced
concrete their presence may become the cause for corrosion steel. Sulphates may react
with the hydration products leading to excessive an undesirable expansion of hardened
concrete especially in damp conditions.

There is a possibility that soil and filler materials may be part of recycled aggregate
system. Demolished concrete and masonry is frequently contaminated by organic soil or
clay and the clay is difficult to remove once in cooperated with the material and clay

1085
materials could be deleterious. The whole idea is that understanding that what we are
using is not necessarily the best quality material, what is the level of strength or any
other property of concrete that we can still get. That is the subject of study.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:45)

So, first step in the process is the properties of the recycled aggregates themselves. As
usual the properties are nothing different, the specific gravity bulk density, absorption,
soundness and freezing and thawing. These are some of the qualities of the aggregate
which will be relevant whether we are using recycled aggregate or we are using normal
aggregates.

1086
(Refer Slide Time: 19:12)

So, as far as specific gravity is concerned, the specific gravity of recycled aggregates
ranges from 2.2 to 2.6 which is about 15 to 20 percent lower than that of natural final
coarse aggregates. And correspondingly of course, the bulk density numbers will also be
lower.

Then, we come to absorption. Now, the porosity of recycled aggregates expressed by

absorption values ranges from about 3 to 12 percent as against 0.5 to let us say 1 percent
in the case of normal aggregate. This high porosity and absorption and recycled
aggregates can be attributed to adhering residues on the natural aggregate interface. So,
this contaminants which are present on the surface of the old aggregates they become
primary absorbers and since we are actually evaluating the recycle material the
absorption values on the face of it increase.

1087
(Refer Slide Time: 20:16)

Now, let us come to soundness and freezing and thawing of the recycled aggregates.
Recycled aggregates produce from concrete are not as sound or durable as naturally
available aggregate. For example, in the soundness test by the freezing and thawing or
the Los Angeles abrasion tests the recycled aggregate losses could be 30 to 33 percent
more for smaller size particles and 1 to 12 percent more for larger size particles.

As the particle size increases the losses decrease. Poor soundness can also be attributed
to chunks of mortar in recycled aggregates fracturing and de-bonding from the aggregate.
See, what is really happening is that we have a normal aggregate like this and we have
some contaminant deposit on the aggregate and once this recycled aggregate is tested.
For example, in Loss Angeles abrasion kind of an apparatus it is likely that chunks of
this mortar which is adhering to the surface of this aggregate could fracture or de-bond or
just spall of and so on. As a result of that the net change in weight of this recycled
aggregate will be a lot more than if we were testing simply this old natural aggregate. So,
it is a matter of understandings, what is the extent of loss and this loss will obviously be
related to how much is the mortar that is adhering to this aggregate and what are the
qualities of that mortar, what is the strength of that mortar itself. If that mortar was high
strength mortar then possibility is that extent of reduction will be small but, if the mortar
which is adhering to the aggregate did not have sufficient strength then, we could have a
much larger reduction in weight if were testing the recycled aggregate for Los Angeles
kind of test.

1088
(Refer Slide Time: 22:33)

Now, this picture here shows the construction using normal aggregates or normal
aggregates in concrete. We have a normal aggregate or a natural aggregate embedded in
a matrix of hardened cement paste. As against this picture here is that of recycled
aggregate again embedded in hardened cement paste.

So, because it is recycled it has a certain amount of residual mortar or any other
contaminant adhering to the surface of the natural aggregate. This aggregate which is the
natural aggregate plus residual mortar this is what we are calling recycled aggregate.
Now, once this recycled aggregate is embedded in the hardened cement paste we get a
concrete which could be called concrete made with recycled aggregate or recycled
aggregate concrete.

Whereas, here what we will get in is natural aggregate concrete. Now, obviously the
properties of this concrete and the properties of this concrete will be affected by the
properties of this residual mortar. What is the actual effect on the properties of concrete
would depend on the properties of this residual mortar and how much of it is adhering to
the surface aggregate. This understanding should be the bases or can be the bases of
understanding or trying to explore the properties of concrete which is made with recycled
aggregate.

1089
(Refer Slide Time: 24:25)

As usual when it comes to concrete may be recycled aggregates, we will talk about
properties of fresh concrete and properties of hardened concrete because that
understanding of concrete that concrete is a material which behaves differently when it is
fresh and differently when it is hardened that does not change. Simply because we are
using one aggregate type or another. So, as far as fresh concrete is concerned there are
issues related to bulk density, air content and slump.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:57)

1090
And as far as bulk density is concerned, it is related to the lighter specific gravity of the
recycled aggregate itself and it is being found that whereas the density of fresh concrete
made with natural aggregates is in the range of about 2400 kg per cubic meter that of
concrete made with recycled aggregate is only about 2100 or 2150 and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:20)

As far as the slump is concerned that is a workability of concrete made with recycled
aggregates is concerned. For the same water content the workability of recycled
aggregate concrete is lower than that of normal concrete that is, concrete made with
normal aggregates.

In particular concretes with more than 50 percent recycled coarse aggregate experience
workability related issues. So, for the first time today we are talking in terms of 50
percent recycled coarse aggregate. That is to say, there is always a possibility that the
naturally occurring aggregates and the recycled aggregates are mixed and we produce
concrete which has different levels of replacement of natural aggregate by recycled
aggregates. We may add 10 percent, 20 percent and so on and so forth.

So, it is not necessary that any concreting situation we have a 0 1 situation that is, either
use recycled aggregates or use natural aggregates. No, we can use combinations and as
the results work here shows that if we use more than 50 percent recycle aggregates there
could be issues related to workability.

1091
(Refer Slide Time: 22:33)

We go back to this understanding of concrete. As far as workability is concerned the

effect of this residual mortar will again start to manifest itself whether it is fresh concrete
or it is hardened concrete because the recycled aggregate is lighter, the concrete will be
lighter. And it is lighter because very lightly whatever is adhering to the aggregate
especially in cases of aggregates derived from concrete waste is mortar and has a certain
amount of porosity.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:14)

1092
As far as the air content in recycled aggregates is concerned it has been reported that air
content tends to be slightly higher than in normal concrete though the cause is not really
clear. It may be pointed out that there is literature which suggests that in the case of
lightweight aggregate concrete also there is a tendency for increased air content but, that
does not mean that we can start treating recycled aggregates simply as another form of
lightweight aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:45)

Now, coming to the properties of hardened recycled aggregate concrete. We have the
same old properties compressive strength, tensile strength, bond strength, modulus of
elasticity, porosity and so on.

1093
(Refer Slide Time: 27:59)

As far as compressive strength is concerned the use of recycled aggregate leads to a

reduced strength of concrete and of course, the extent of reduction depends on the water
cement ratio and the moisture condition of the aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:18)

What is being said here is that depending on the water cement ratio of this hardened
cement paste and the moisture conditions of the recycled aggregate that is to what extent
was this mortar which was adhering to the virgin aggregate. To what extent was that
saturated whether, this contaminant would absorb or release water into the hydrated

1094
cement paste that will determine the effect of using recycled aggregates on the strength
of concrete.

The whole idea here when we were using or discussing natural aggregates and their
segregation in concrete was that there is an into measure transition zone or an interfacial
transition zone which is formed around the aggregates which often tends to govern the
properties of concrete as far as strength is concerned.

Now, in the case of recycled aggregate, how do we interpret or what kind of

understanding do we carry as far as that ITZ is concerned because we already have one
ITZ in the form of mortar which is adhering to the original aggregate. And there will be
another ITZ which will be formed around this in much the same manner as an ITZ would
form here. And since, this discussion is largely qualitative and it cannot be made more
quantitative very easily, it is important that if we decide or when we decide to use
recycled aggregates in our concrete we carry out the actual test and find out what is the
level of reduction of strength or the change in any other property that we are talking
about.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:09)

Now, let us come to the modulus of elasticity. Now, the modulus of elasticity of the
recycled aggregate is about 50 to 70 percent of the normal concrete depending on the
water cement ratio in the replacement level and this issue we have more or less discussed
just now. It should be noted that smaller the difference between the modulus of elasticity

1095
of the hardened cement and the modulus of elasticity of the aggregate, the better is the
response of the concrete made with recycled aggregate to stresses and the more
monolithic concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:46)

As far as the modulus of elasticity of this concrete is concerned that obviously is related
to the modulus of elasticity of the hardened cement paste and the modulus of elasticity of
the natural aggregate. So, in this case the modulus of elasticity would depend on the
modulus of elasticity of this, this, this together. If the modulus of elasticity of this
material is close to the modulus of elasticity of this material then, any reduction or
change in the e values of this concrete would be lower compare to a situation where this
material is substantial weaker or stronger compared to this.

1096
(Refer Slide Time: 31:36)

Now, as far as flexural tensile strength is concerned and that is something which we use
that we are trying to use concrete and applications like pavements and so on. The ratio of
the flexural and splitting strength to the compressive strength is in the range of 16 to 23
percent and 9 to 13 percent respectively.

These values are about 10 to 15 percent lower compared to the recommendations of the
ACI 363. And the tensile strength for mixes with natural aggregates are always higher
but, the difference with that of the recycled aggregates are not greater than 10 percent at
28 days of concrete. It may be noted that the effect of admixtures and tensile strength is
much greater than the effect of introduction of recycled aggregates.

So, basically the idea is that the tensile strength and flexural strength values are much
smaller compared to compressive strength values. And therefore, it is difficult to study
those properties with as much clarity as we can as far as compressive strength is
concerned. Nonetheless, we must make an effort actually determine these values and find
out how different they are compare to normal aggregates or what are the actual that we
will get at site depending on application so that, that is the value that the designer is
aware of when he carries out the structural design.

1097
(Refer Slide Time: 33:04)

Now, continuing with our discussion on the properties of concrete affected by the use of
recycled aggregates, let us talk about bond strength. The influence of using recycled
aggregate on bond strength is minor and only about 10 percent at full replacement.

Now, as far as drying shrinkage is concerned, recycled concretes or concretes made with
recycled aggregates induce a large shrinkage or a larger shrinkage as compared to
concretes made with normal aggregates. The use of recycled aggregates in concrete
induces a large shrinkage due to the capacity of these aggregates to absorb greater
quantities of water. The shrinkage of recycled aggregate concrete at the age of about say
90 days is 0.55 to 0.8 millimeters per meter. And the shrinkage of normal concrete at this
level is only about 0.3. So, now there is no reason to take these values as [sacrosand]
truth.

These are the results of an experiment investigation carried out under certain conditions.
What it only points out is that, depending on the quality of the recycled aggregate there
could be issues relating to drying shrinkage and once the engineer is aware of that the
structure can be designed accordingly.

1098
(Refer Slide Time: 30:46)

As I explained here the absorption of water in the case of concrete being made with
recycled aggregate occurs not only in the hardened cement paste but, also in the residual
material and that is why the drying shrinkage is higher.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:04)

In all this discussion we should remember that we are talking of the residual material
being such that it absorbs water, it has certain porosity much like mortar. We are
normally talking in terms of recycled aggregate made from old concrete. This discussion
would change slightly if the material or the recycled aggregate was drawn from

1099
bituminous concrete and instead of mortar the normal cement mortar that we are familiar
with it was bitumen which was adhering to the virgin aggregate and that aggregate was
being used in recycled aggregate concrete. So, that discussion would change slightly but,
in principle the fact that we must test or determine the effect of using recycled aggregate
concrete on compressive strength or tensile strength or drying shrinkage or bond strength
that fact does not still go away.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:46)

Another aspect or may be last aspect as far as the use of recycled aggregate in concrete is
concerned is that related to durability and again we are concerned with carbonation
studies, freezing and thawing resistance and the rate of absorption and total absorption of
concrete.

1100
(Refer Slide Time: 36:07)

As far as carbonation is concerned for the same water pointer ratio the carbonation
depths in concrete containing recycled aggregates are slightly higher than that of normal
aggregate concrete and this could be due to the presence of old interfacial zone or
interfacial transition zone the ITZ and the adhesive mortar in the recycled aggregates
which makes the recycled concrete more permeable than normal aggregate concrete.

So, basically it is the same old properties that are coming to visit us. The porosity, the
absorption of the aggregate coupled with the porosity and absorption of the old mortar
versus the new mortar because there is no reason to believe that the residual mortar
which is adhering to the cold aggregate will have the same water cement ratio or the
same kind of characteristics as the new hardened cement paste which surrounds it

1101
(Refer Slide Time: 37:02)

As far as the rate of absorption and the total absorption of water is concerned the rate of
these properties are higher as far as recycled aggregate concrete is concerned compared
to normal concrete. The total absorption is about 4 percent for normal concretes and is
about 8 percent for recycled aggregate concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:20)

As far as the freezing and thawing resistance is concerned, this resistance of recycled
aggregate concrete really depends on the properties of the recycled aggregate and the
matrix of the recycled aggregate concrete itself. The freezing and thawing of concrete

1102
made with recycled aggregate produced from non air-entrained concrete is quite poor as
far as this particular study that was carried out is concerned.

It seems that recycled coarse aggregate including particles or including adhered mortar
with insufficient air void content convert the total pore system of the concrete to a
partially non entrained void system and causing serious durability loss under frost attack.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:46)

So, what we are really looking at is a system which is similar to this. And as far as
normal concrete is concerned when that is exposed to freezing and thawing, it is the
porosity or the air entrainment in this hardened cement paste which matters. When it
comes to concretes made with recycled aggregates. What air content are we talking
about? Are we talking about air content here which is what will happen which is what we
will possibly measure or try to ensure when we are making concrete made with the
recycled aggregate or we are trying to talk about the air content of this residual mortar
which is adhering to the concrete or which is adhering to the cold aggregate.

Now, it is a combination of this air entrainment and this entrainment that is going to find
the determinant. The air entrainment or the durability of this concrete in freezing and
thawing.

1103
(Refer Slide Time: 37:20)

Now, before we conclude our discussion have been gone through the properties of the
recycled aggregate itself and also the properties of the concrete that is made with that
recycled aggregate and having covered briefly the need to study this issue of using
recycled aggregate.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:27)

What are the barriers in promoting the use of recycled aggregate and concrete made with
recycled aggregate? Now, the first thing that we have is a lack of appropriately located
recycling facilities. The second is a lack of awareness among concrete engineers and

1104
users towards the use of recycled aggregate as a construction material. Then, there is lack
of government or regulatory support and a lack of proper standards that define
precautions that must be taken or the conditions in which such material can be used.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:13)

Now, if we spend a while on each of these issues as far as the lack of appropriately
located recycled facilities is concerned, we must be aware that construction and
demolition waste is generated with small quantities at locations which could be widely
separated. Therefore, portable equipment which can convert the demolition waste locally
into aggregates is needed and that equipment can be set up closed to a demotion site.
Unlike a normal quarrying where the entire process of crushing, sieving and so on takes
place at a particular place and the aggregates is transporting.

1105
(Refer Slide Time: 41:14)

Transporting ways to the larger distances makes the preposition of using construction
demolition waste uneconomical and commissioning of appropriately located recycling
crusher units in a pilot plant can help in lowering barriers against recycling of such
waste. Then, there is of course, the absence of appropriate technology as well. There are
very few commercially viable technologies for recycling, construction in demolition
waste and the methods that can be used to crush the C and D waste on a commercial
scale are urgently required and I think one of the things that we need to do as far as
engineers is concerned is to develop such technologies. In fact, when the technologies
established other issues such as quality control of raw material and finished product as
far as the recycled aggregate is concerned can obviously be taken up.

1106
(Refer Slide Time: 41:50)

Lack of awareness among the users and the engineers is a large barrier towards using
these materials in actual construction. Lack of awareness towards recycling possibilities
in the environment will implications of using only fresh mind aggregates are the main
barriers due to which construction demolition waste is disposed only in landfills and is
not used as a construction material. Creating awareness in dissemination of information
relating to these barriers and the properties of concrete made with recycled aggregate are
essential to mobilize public opinion and instill confidence in favour of the recycling
option. There is a need to create market for recycled products by involving the
construction industry and encouraging them to use recycled materials in projects.

1107
(Refer Slide Time: 42:43)

And that cannot happen unless we have a regulatory support or a government support. A
lack of government or regulatory support and commitment towards development of
recycling industry is often seen as a barrier. Developing appropriate policy supported by
proper regulatory framework can provide the necessary impetus to use recycled
aggregates in the construction industry and it will also help in data compilation,
documentation and control over disposal of waste material.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:16)

1108
As far as standards is concerned that is the first step which gives confidence to a user and
and to an engineer in using these materials and very few specifications are available in
the world today. Rilem, Jis and some of those used in Hong Kong are only the beginning
and a lot more needs to be done before such specifications are in place which will enable
the use of recycled aggregate concrete. But, as far as the discussion is concerned today is
relevant to concrete engineers who will be practicing for a lot of years to come and that
is why it is important that they are aware of the issues involved, the test that should be
undertaken and identify areas in which such marginal products can be used.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:08)

In summary, as far as the use of recycled fine aggregate mortars is concerned. At a given
water content the workability of fresh mortar can be reduced as a replacement level
increases. The compressive strength can go down. And as far as this strength is
concerned, the full replacement of natural sand fractions in mortar with recycled fine
aggregates can be done. However, it will be possible only at high water-cement ratios
because of the high absorption in RFA.

1109
(Refer Slide Time: 44:41)

As far as concrete is concerned, at a given water content the workability of fresh

concrete is lower; the compressive strength of concrete is also lower. But, it is not so
much compromised so long as we are dealing with concretes up to about 30 MPa of
strength. And therefore, there can be a lot of places where recycled aggregate concrete
can be actually used.

(Refer Slide Time: 45:23)

The durability of concrete could pose some difficulty but, still there are places where we
could gainfully use this material. Now, before we close the discussion as usual there are

1110
a few questions for you. Make a list of available literature of the subject of producing
and using recycled concrete and other construction waste as coarse and fine aggregate in
new construction. Study some of the specifications related to the use of such material in
construction projects. Find out more about actual cases where construction in demolition
waste has been used in projects and the challenges that we encountered there. And
identify technical, economical and environmental issues that are related to the use of
construction and demolition waste in concrete construction.

Thank you.

1111
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 34
Basic non-destructive testing for concrete structures

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

[FL] and welcome to this lecture in concrete engineering and technology. In this course
we have been trying to revise some basic principles to develop framework which helps
us to understand the basic or the present day scenario in concrete engineering and go
through some special issues in high performance and special concretes especially with
the view of performance based thinking durability and maintenance.

1112
(Refer Slide Time: 00:45)

Now, in this connection we have tried to divide our course or the subjects in these key
words fundamentals, proportioning, stages in concrete constructions, special concretes
mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement in concrete structures and maintenance.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:13)

Now, as far as maintenance of concrete structure is concerned that is what we are talking
about now and we have said that we will try to divide this discussion into 3 parts non-
destructive testing, evaluation which is based on non-destructive testing and a
comprehensive plan for maintenance.

1113
Now, let us start our discussion on non-destructive testing of reinforced concrete
structures. So, in the discussion today we will focus on some basic techniques which we
use, go through their applications the principles involved and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:49)

Now, first of all we must understand as to why we are carrying out the non-destructive
testing. In any concrete structure one of the time reasons we carry this exercise out is to
estimate the strength of concrete. We must remember that the strength of concrete in a
structure is not the same as that of the cubes which we use as a measure of quality
control. The cubes are taken cured in water for 28 days most of the time and then tested.

Now, neither the placing conditions nor the curing conditions of the cubes are the same
as the conditions in which the concrete is exposed in the actual structure its stands
reason. Therefore, that we make efforts to get an estimate of the actual strength of
concrete in a structure this strength may be higher or lower than the cube strength. The
cube strength is a measure of the quality control itself. Whereas, though it represents the
strength of the concrete in the actual structure it is not really the same thing.

We have seen so many reasons because of which cracks may develop in a concrete
structure. There may be flexural cracks which are expected for example, in a
reinforcement concrete beam or sometimes a slab there may be cracks on account of
shrinkage and other reasons in concrete. We have also seen the situation where cracks

1114
can be formed along the reinforcing bars in the case of reinforced concrete in the case of
reinforcement corrosion.

We have seen evidence of cracking on account of alkali aggregate reaction and so on. So,
basically there could be a need or a reason to try to ascertain through nondestructive
testing the extent of cracking in concrete. There is a possibility that there can be a void
behind a concrete structure. There is possibility that the concrete structure may have
some delamination or a void behind the concrete surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 04:29)

If we look at a concrete structure and we have placed concrete like this, if this side is
concrete it is likely that sometimes for whatever reason, lack of compaction having some
difficulties in placing the concrete and so on. This void may remain within the concrete
surface or within the concrete main body. It will not be apparent on the surface because a
surface appears to be integral but, we are interested to know if such a delamination or a
void exists below the surface of concrete.

1115
(Refer Slide Time: 05:14)

(Refer Slide Time: 05:31)

We could be interested in finding out what is the thickness of a concrete layer. I can give
2 examples where this is something of importance to an engineer. For example, in a
tunnel lining if this is the space of the tunnel which we have excavated and we have
shotcreted concrete like this, it is not necessary that this thickness of the concrete layer is
actually uniform throughout the tunnel surface. There may be possibilities that due to
some irregularities here the thickness may be smaller or larger.

1116
(Refer Slide Time: 06:21)

And we would be interested to know through nondestructive methods as to what is the

actual thickness of the concrete in that layer. Another example is in the case of
foundations, where we would like to know what is the thickness of this concrete block or
concrete layer which is lying below the surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:45)

So, we are interested to find out this thickness. There are different methods which are
available and we could be talking about those we could be interested in finding out the
permeability of concrete. Permeability is related to strength because it is related to

1117
porosity and porosity is related to strength but, there are circumstances, there are
possibilities, there are cases when we are when we are interested to measure the
permeability concrete parse either quantitatively, as in absolute measure, or compare the
permeability’s of 2 concrete.

We could be interested in finding out the corrosion of reinforcement in concrete. Now as

far as corrosion is concerned we have seen the mechanism, we have seen the
implications and now we could be interested to find out whether or not corrosion is
taking place in the concrete structure or we could be interested to find out if corrosion is
occurring. Then what is the rate of the instantaneous corrosion in the concrete structure?

We could be interested to find out carbonation or chloride penetration in concrete

because this is something which is related to corrosion even if corrosion is not taking
place. We may like to know what is the extent of carbonation. We may like to know
what is the extent of chloride penetration? And we have seen the importance of these
parameters when we were talking of chloride induced corrosion or carbonation induced
corrosion in concrete structures.

We could be interested to find out the damage on account of alkali aggregate reaction in
concrete. We know that alkali aggregate reaction does not continue forever. There is of
ultimate level beyond which the reaction really ceases and therefore, one may be
interested to know if in a structures, which is afflicted with alkali aggregate reaction, the
extent of deterioration which is observed, is it really the ultimate level or there is a
potential for the alkali aggregate reaction to continue further.

Now we must remember that nondestructive testing is similar to that of health check,
much like we go to a doctor and try to ascertain how healthy the different parts of our
body whether it is kidneys or the liver or the heart, how healthy these parts are and there
are tests by which their health can be determined, that performance of these parts can be
determined, whether they are performing the way they are supposed to much in the same
manner. Those nondestructive tests are designed to give us an idea as to what is the
performance of the concrete structure.

The performance we measured in terms of strength cracking, delamination thickness of

the concrete layer. Performance here includes the quality of the concrete as well, which

1118
is an important parameter as far as the susceptibility of a concrete structure to premature
deterioration is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:17)

Another thing which we must remember for non-destructive testing is whether the
method that we are looking for or the method that we use is a general purpose method or
it is a method which is designed for a specific purpose. You must remember that
concrete structures are often very large structures and it is physically impossible to
actually ascertain or actually monitor the performance of this structure as a whole. We
need to identify smaller areas and carry out a greater in depth analysis in those areas.

There are methods which help us narrow down the areas for more detailed examination.
If we look at a bridge for example, it could have several pears. It has a deck slab; it has
the beams, now all those elements cannot be examined for shear economy, from the
shear point of view of ease of carrying out the tests and therefore, there are methods
which we need which will enable us to narrow down our choice to specific areas. So, that
is what I mean when I say narrowing down of areas for more detailed inspection.

We could be interested to find out through nondestructive test, what exactly is the
mechanism that is operating? As far as deterioration is concerned is the cracking. For
example, due to alkali aggregate reaction or corrosion induced or shrinkage and so on.

1119
So, we need to carry out the forensic kind of an exercise to understand whatever is going
on in the structure and causing changes in the performance. We may like to find out
through nondestructive test more about the extent of deterioration an account of a
specific mechanism of deterioration. That is the kind of example which I gave when we
talked about reinforcement corrosion.

The extent of reinforcement corrosion that has occurred till date is 1 part of the
discussion and instantaneous rate of corrosion is another part. Its slightly the substantial
amount of corrosion has occurred in reinforce concrete structure but, the instantaneous
rate is quite low. Conversely it is possible that though very little corrosion has really
taken place but, the instantaneous rate rate of corrosion is very high, that is, the corrosion
currents are very high and so on.

So, we have to keep in mind when we use a particular method of non-destructive testing
as to what we are looking for from that method. Most method will give us a value, they
will give us a parameter but, it is up to us to interpret those results, not necessarily only
from the point of view of that particular result but, also look at it comprehensively in
conjunction with the results from other tests.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:39)

Now, coming to the method that are available to us, as far as non-destructive testing of
concrete is concerned there are traditional methods, the Schmidt rebound hammer, the
ultrasonic pulse velocity, are 2 of those which help us determining or estimate the

1120
strength of concrete. As far as reinforcement corrosion is concerned natural half-cell
potential measurements are a standard method once again.

As far as other in situ examinations are concerned we could be looking at surface cracks,
delamination chain drag and so on, and, as far as recent developments are concerned in
this filed we have infrared thermography image processing, acoustic emission radars,
electromagnetic methods, impact echo and in situ permeability determination as some of
the methods which have been used and their use in the field varies depending on the
extent of specialties available, the funds available and so on. So, in this discussion from
this point onwards we will look at some of these methods and understand the principles
underlying them and the results that we get.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:58)

The first thing that we want to talk about let us say, is the Schmidt rebound hammer.
Now, this picture here shows the Schmidt hammer which is very commonly available for
non-destructive testing test in estimation of concrete strength. This here is the same
Schmidt hammer except that now we have devices such as this which enable us to
actually date alarm the number that we get.

Basically the method is based on the hardness of the surface and what we do is that this
plunger of the Schmidt hammer strikes the surface of concrete here with a certain
predetermined energy, which is governed by the spring, which is sitting inside the
Schmidt hammer and once the plunger strikes the surface of concrete with the certain

1121
amount of energy then, that energy is dissipated either by breaking the concrete in the
immediate neighborhood and so on, or it is used for the rebound of the probe.

Now the extent of rebound gives us a measure of the hardness of the surface and is
correlated with the strength of the concrete. We must remember that this method gives us
an estimate of the compressive strength of the concrete. It’s really that is the surface
concrete it does not give us the estimate of the concrete deep inside the structure if we
are talking of a large structure strength of the surface concrete on the basis of the
hardness of the surface which is an indirect measure of the strength and the hardness is
what determines or is responsible for the rebound of the probe.

(Refer Slide Time: 17:09)

If we look at these 2 pictures we see here the Schmidt in this picture we see the Schmidt
hammer being used to estimate the strength of a wall, that is, the Schmidt hammer is
being held horizontally whereas, in this case the effort is being made to estimate the
strength of a concrete cylinder which is just held or kept on the ground and the Schmidt
hammer is vertical.

Now if we look or take look at these 1 cases what we realize is that whereas, the wall
may be reasonably firm or fixed, the cylinder is not restrained in position. Now if the
concrete in the 2 cases was really the same, then the energy dissipation on account of the
non-fixity of techniques cylinder would give us a lower rebound.

1122
Similarly if the wall thickness that we have is very small then striking that wall with the
Schmidt hammer will cause a wall to start vibrating and that again will lower the
rebound of the Schmidt hammer, that again will lower the rebound that we observe in the
Schmidt hammer. These are the kind of things that we must watch out against when we
try to standardize the test and try to carry out the actual estimate of strength of concrete
in an existing structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:52)

Continuing our discussion with the Schmidt hammer it is essentially a measure of surface
hardness and is based on the principles that, harder surface give a higher rebound and
concrete with a higher compressive strength will have a harder surface. There is no
apparent theoretical relationship between the compressive strength of concrete and only
empirical relationships exists, in fact most of the time the manufacturer of the Schmidt
hammer provides along with Schmidt hammer the actual device, a calibration curve
which enables us to estimate or determine the compressive strength of concrete based on
the rebound number or the rebound that we get from that particular hammer. It is very
important therefore, that each instrument is actually calibrated very properly and it is not
only done once but, it is periodically calibrated to make sure that the hammer continuous
to give consistence results. It is slightly that over period of time the spring stiffness,
which is the key parameter to giving consistence and accurate results from the Schmidt
hammer, changes and therefore, we must recall these changes and modify the calibration
curve at different points and time. Of course, in spite of the obvious limitations the

1123
Schmidt hammer is perhaps the most commonly used nondestructive tool as far as
estimation of strength of concrete is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:43)

If we look at the estimates of strength from the Schmidt hammer this is the representative
data and if we have the compressive strength plotted on the y axis and the rebound
numbers plotted on the x axis, we find that the numbers are not necessarily same, for
example, the actual line if we look at the calibration equations or the calibration graphs
of estimating the strength based on rebound hammers. This here represents the line of
equality drawn very roughly and we see that depending on the test which have been
carried out these numbers could be lower than the actual strength or higher than the
actual strength, depending on where the test is been carried out, who has carried out the
test and so on. Also there is this issue as to what strength levels we are talking about if
we are talking at, let’s say, 10 15 20 MPa or very normal or nominal kind of strength or
we are going into slightly higher levels of strength the calibration equations or the
calibration estimating.

At higher levels of strength the same equations need not hold and therefore, we need to
calibrate our hammer for different levels of strength. We should be very careful about
doing this in order that the results that we get are accurate consistent and repeatable.

1124
(Refer Slide Time: 22:27)

As far as calibrating this Schmidt hammer is concerned, let us carry out by preparing
concrete specimens covering the lightly range of strength for which the estimation is
required and then holding the specimens in place by applying a load in the range of about
15 percent of the ultimate load used by the Schmidt rebound hammer. To obtain 15
readings making sure not to hit the same spot twice and then once we load this specimen
to failure then we have the actual value of the failure load or the actual strength of
concrete and also the estimated strength from the 15 readings. It’s slightly that they will
be lot of variation in the 15 readings and the test methods specify or lay down procedures
by which this data 15 readings is to handle and how the extreme values are to be treated
in terms of whether they are accounted, whether they are counted, when taking the
average or discarded as outliers.

1125
(Refer Slide Time: 23:43)

Of course, the advantages to summarize the advantages of Schmidt rebound hammer are
that it is easy to carry out, it is cheap, the method is basically very robust, it does not
require very high degree of skill in the personal what actually carrying out the tests and
is a good tool for carrying out relative comparisons between different part of a concrete
structure, where the concrete is supposed to have the same strength and so on.

It suffers of course, from disadvantages that it does not give a direct measure of the
strength, it only gives an indirect measure, it is a rebound number strength or the rebound
strength as difference specifications call it. At best we can measure only the strength of
the concrete close to the surface and the interpretation of the data especially directs
strength is very very difficult. Now, this brings me to a close of the discussion on
Schmidt hammer.

1126
(Refer Slide Time: 24:51)

And let us try to now work on another method which is commonly used, that is, the
ultrasonic velocity method. In this case using sensors as shown here an ultrasonic wave
is passed through the concrete surface and the time it takes to pass through this distance,
let us say, d, this gives some velocity which is d by t and this velocity is a measure of the
quality of concrete or the strength of concrete.

Now in this case we should remember that strength of the concrete in this case we should
remember that the strength of the concrete is also related to the modulus of elasticity of
the concrete and this modulus of elasticity of the concrete is very much related to the
velocity of the ultrasonic pulse velocity is very much related to the velocity of an
ultrasonic pulse which traverse as the concrete or traverse this medium that is concrete.

Now this method as can be seen now, gives an estimate of the compressive strength of
concrete on the basis of the recorded ultrasonic pulse velocity and of course, the methods
suffers from the drawback that presence of reinforcement within the bar the presence of
reinforcement bars within the concrete which is very likely in the case of reinforce
concrete structures in fact most concrete structures is likely to affect the passage of these
waves and that should be accounted for when we estimate the velocity or interpret the
results based on the velocity.

Further direct measurements or a direct measurement of pulse velocity, the weight is

shown here may not always be possible, because both the surfaces of concrete may not

1127
really be accessible to us. Only in certain very limited cases both sides of the concrete
surface or a concrete structure are equally accessible to us and therefore, what we need to
make do is with not necessarily what is called direct method but, indirect methods as we
shall see.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:27)

Here is what the indirect method is. What we saw was a direct method, where the
transducers which sent in the wave as well as the transducer which receive the wave
were opposite each other. Now in this case what is written as surface, both these
transducers are on the same side of the concrete structure and the wave is really just
passing through this distance, not necessarily in the same way as it was passing through
this distance.

Similarly in the case of a column for example, it may be possible that we can put or we
need to put sensors on 2 adjacent faces of a concrete structure and then the distance
involved is something like this. These are the kind of things which we need to account
for, when we are talking in terms of interpretation of data based on the ultrasonic pulse
velocity measurements. This set of pictures here shows how the presence of reinforcing
bars can interfere with the upv measurement or the ultrasonic pulse velocity
measurements.

In this case the reinforcing bar is parallel to the direction in which the ultrasonic pulse
wave or the ultrasonic pulse is moving. In this case however, the reinforcement is

1128
arranged in a manner that it is perpendicular and there are multiple reinforcing bars in the
path of the ultrasonic pulse. These things we really need to account for when we are
talking of evaluating the results or interpreting the results based on ultrasonic pulse
measure. Based on ultrasonic pulse velocity measurements this here is standard
equipment which is often available and sometimes used. These are the sensors which are
fixed at the different or 2 ends of the concrete and this device. Here is what gives us the
measurement or which helps us measure either the time of traverse for the pulse or the
velocity directly. If the distance is already been fed in this system does not have any
mechanism as of now so far to account for the presence of reinforcement and so on in the
path of the wave that part has to be taken into account at a later stage when we are trying
to correct the raw data for interpretation.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:21)

Now, let us come to some other methods, still continuing with the basic objective of
determining or estimating the strength of concrete in situ or in an actual structure. Now
this method which is the pull out method requires that an insert is placed within the
concrete and at a given point and time. After this concrete here has hardened we have a
mechanism by which we try to pull this insert out.

Now as we pull the insert out, it will induce a failure which is shown here, along this
coal as here now depending on the force required to induce this failure we can estimate
the strength of concrete as it causes a rapture surface to be formed along this coal. This

1129
method is more amenable to analytical treatment where we try to figure out what really is
happening as far as the concrete is concerned when it is under the action of these forces
and at the time it fails.

So, we are really measuring the tensile fracture, along the tensile fracture plane the stress
at which the concrete has failed. This of course, is not a truly nondestructive method. It is
semi destructive to estimate the concrete compressive strength but, it requires is pre-
embedded probes and of course, once the reinforcement is present in the concrete then
that present then that will interfere with the test.

(Refer Slide Time: 33:11)

Once we take these things into account then of course, we can use the pullout method to
actually determine the strength of concrete in situ. This is the very good method provided
we can take care of pre-embedded probes, that is, we have planned for a certain testing
protocol. The method is very useful to actually determine the strength of concrete at a
given point and time which may be required for example, for deshuttering removal of
formwork transfer of pre-stress and so on. Those are very useful method from that point
of view, as it gives us an actual estimate of this strength of concrete. In the structure this
here is another method which is slightly different and is called the pull off method.

1130
(Refer Slide Time: 33:40)

In this case what we do is to drill a hole here and then try to pull this concrete of from
within the hole, thereby, trying to induce direct tensile failure in this flame this is
accomplished by gluing a plate to the surface and trying to pull the plate off assuming
that the plate and the concrete surface are properly bounded.

Now once that is accomplished we induce direct tensile failure in a plane which is shown
here and we can get a direct measure of the tensile strength. In this case again we are not
getting compressive strength that we get from the cubes normally tested but, we get a
measure of the tensile strength, which again, is related to the compressive strength.

1131
(Refer Slide Time: 34:30)

Continuing with the discussion once again there is no break off method. Now in this case
what is done is that after the hole has been drilled instead of trying to pull the concrete
off and in and inducing a tensile failure in this portion what we try to do is to apply a
horizontal force here the weight is shown in this diagram here.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:08)

The way this method works if we look at a diagram, which shows, this test what happens
is that we have this concrete core or a part of a concrete which has been isolated from the
main concrete here, and if we apply a force here, this amounts to this part of the concrete

1132
block behaving as a cantilever and breaking off at this surface and that is really a flexural
failure of the concrete block.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:49)

As shown here, it is a flexural fracture plane induced and instead of that in this method
what we do is get a flexure fracture plane and not a tensile fracture plane, as we got in
the pull of method. This too is a semi destructive method to estimate the concrete
compressive strength and then what we need to do is to estimate the compressive
strength from the flexural strength that we get from the test.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:24)

1133
Now if you look at some of the correlations which are available, we see that the
compressive strength and tensile strength are indeed related to each other in a certain
manner. This here is compressive strength and this tensile strength of course, the units
are in kg per centimeter square and we need to convert them to the SI units but, the
principle is very clear that once we have these values and these kind of a correlation we
look at it 2 ways, 1 is that yes if we are able to get an estimate of the tensile strength we
will be able to get an estimate of the compressive strength that is point number 1. The
second point is depending on the accuracy of this calibration curve we may get values
which are ranging. For example, in this case from this point to this point.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:26)

Now, if you look at the correlation between tensile strength and flexural strength this is
the line of a quality and what it shows here is deepening on whatever is the data that we
take. These data need not be really exactly identical and therefore, we need to establish
correlations for the range in which we are working whether we have working in this
range here or we are working in this range here, the relationships could be different and
once we have this relationships with us then of course, it is not so difficult to have a
calibration curve, which helps us estimate the actual compressive strength of concrete,
based on the tensile strength or the flexural strength that we measure or determine using
the pull out test or the pull off test or the break off test.

1134
(Refer Slide Time: 38:31)

Now, let us come to something else measurement of crack widths. Now, this here is a
simple optical device which helps us measure the width of these cracks. It is like using a
magnifying glass and recording the crack width. This here is another very common and
very interesting device which has the thicknesses of lines for example, this line and this
line and so on. All these lines the thickness or the widths are given and what the
investigator or the inspector does is to align this crack gauge along the crack in the
concrete surface and sees which of these lines best represent the width of the crack being
measured and that is what is recorded. As far as cracking is concerned one also needs to
determine sometimes whether the crack is live.

Now what is the live crack? Live crack is 1 that is growing either in width or in length.
We might find a crack which are some point in time was only this much but, over a
period of time it continues to grow inside of within and over a period of time it grows
within the concrete or grows into the concrete. It may happen that the crack does not
necessarily grow inside the structure but, grows as far as the width is concerned and
these kind of things can be determined using a glass strip which is fixed across the crack.
If we have a crack like this we fix a glass strip across a glass and then over a period of
time we monitor whether or not the glass is strip breaks and if the glass strip breaks it is
an indicator that the crack is live and that is the movement along the crack surface is
causes this glass strip to break.

1135
(Refer Slide Time: 40:50)

Modern technology has enabled the use of photographs and digital stills as a very very
important tool for keeping records of concrete surfaces and monitoring their changes
over a period of time, in terms of appearance of cracks the surface becoming rougher
discoloration and so on.

So, what we need to do is to consciously and meticulously take a photograph of concrete

surface and compare it with another photograph taken after period of time and see what
are the kinds of changes that we see on the surface. This is a means of external visual
inspection and involves recording surface changes such as appearance of cracks
discoloration etcetera and removes the subjectivity that may be there if the inspector was
only using his own subjective judgment. As far as vision is concerned what that means is
that an inspector when he looks at a concrete surface he may not record something or he
one inspector may record differently than another. Photographs remove this subjectivity
in the records.

1136
(Refer Slide Time: 42:21)

Thermography is a slightly different form of the same process what we have. As far as
concrete structures is concerned that, radiation is incident on the surface and that is
radiation is reflected or absorbed absorbed radiation is for the reflected from the sub-
surface defect leading to local heating as is shown here. If this radiation falls on a
concrete surface like this, then if this delaminations or the void was not there, then lot of
this radiation will simply get into the concrete, get absorbed and so on. Whereas, on
account of this void or a delamination present within the concrete surface this radiation
gets reflected back to the concrete surface and we have a patch here which has higher
temperature than the neighboring patches. This difference in temperature observed on a
concrete surface can lead us to think as to what is going on within the concrete surface to
cause that difference.

1137
(Refer Slide Time: 43:44)

To take an example, if we have a concrete surface where this letter is embedded there is
a lot of thickness variation here, we have removed the concrete from here. Now, if you
look at the laboratory measurement or records using thermography which is down using
commercial available thermography camera, this here is the record that is observed from
the surface of the concrete, on this side where the thickness of the concrete is reduced at
different places to the extent that the concrete has been taken out from this side in the
shape.

So, this shape here gives us an example shows an example that something is on this
surface and that is needs to be investigated similarly, if you look at this concrete block
here which is just appearing to be plane concrete block and we take a thermograph, we
get an image which is something like this and we can see that these patches here are
different. As far as temperature is concerned from these patches here and this patches
again slightly different because the depth of the concrete which is been removed on the 2
edges, on this edge and the inside is different.

So, what we have it is a method by which looking at the thermograph or the surface
image of concrete we have an idea or we can get we can get some information as to what
is happening behind the concrete surface or within the concrete surface.

1138
(Refer Slide Time: 45:36)

Now, let us look at electromagnetic methods which help us locate the reinforcement
within the concrete and why do we need to determine the exact location of reinforcing
bars? There are two reasons. 1 is in when there are two reasons. 1 is when we are trying
to test reinforcing bars themselves for corrosion and so on. We need to know the exact
location and the second is when we are trying to take course out of the concrete structure.
Then we would not like to damage the reinforcement and take the core from areas
avoiding the reinforcing bars.

How this methods works is that there is a electromagnetic sensor. There is an induced
current involved and in portions where the probe passes directly over the reinforcing bar
response is different compared to cases when the underlying surface is steel free. This
here is a commercially available device for the same purpose and we can see that we can
make an effort to locate the reinforcement in the concrete structure using this hand held
device.

1139
(Refer Slide Time: 47:02)

This here shows the portable equipment for drawing cores for concrete and cores are
very very useful tool. As far as getting information about the exact nature of concrete in
terms of its composition, in terms of its strength, in terms of deterioration and so on,
except that it is a destructive test to some extent it involves removal of the concrete core
from the concrete structure and that may not be always so easily allowed. When taking a
core we should make sure that the damage to the reinforcement in the structure is
avoided to the extent possible and for that purpose we need to have a layout of the
reinforcement in the concrete structure. There are different devices such as the one
shown here which are available for drawing course from a concrete structure, either it
from horizontal position or from a vertical position.

1140
(Refer Slide Time: 48:06)

Now continuing a little bit more into more specialized test this I showed picture from a
study where carbonation was being studied for different concretes and we can see that
the depth of carbonation in the different specimens is different and is measured by way
of the clear thickness of the concrete, that is, the non-coloured part. The clear portion
actually shows the carbonated part.

The color portion shows the noncarbonated part because it is in the colored portion that
we still have a lot of calcium hydroxide available and this calcium hydroxide turns the
phenolphthalein pink in these portions which are on the outside. There is less or no
calcium oxide and therefore, we have phenolphthalein in its original color that is more or
less white or colorless.

So, this is a picture showing how the carbonation depth of a structure can be measured
using a phenolphthalein solution. It takes a core and then try to estimate or determine the
carbonation thickness which can be part of an inspection procedure for carbonation
induced reinforcement corrosion and the structure susceptible to that.

1141
(Refer Slide Time: 49:37)

Now this is a picture of how the reinforcement corrosion itself is monitored. From the
point of view of reinforcement corrosion we have natural potential measurements as a
very standard method of carrying out the test. It consist of a voltmeter connected to the
rebarat, the one side to a copper copper sulfate electrode at the other and this electrode is
moved around from 1 place to another to get the half-cell natural potential of the
reinforcement at that location. Finally what we do is to draw contours of equipotential
lines and identify areas of higher risk of corrosion depending on the actual value of the
half-cell potential that is recorded.

(Refer Slide Time: 50:37)

1142
This is another slightly more specialized device or method used in corrosion studies at
involves the resistance and or resistivity of concrete which is basically the cover
concrete. Recall from a discussion on reinforcement corrosion and the mechanism
involve that corrosion is an electrochemical process where concrete place the role of the
electrolyte and this electrolyte, if it has a high resistance or resistivity then a possibility
of corrosion is so much lower and this method here helps us to estimate or determine the
actual resistance or resistivity of the thermo concrete based on the principle as in strained
or the based on the principle given here, where the in situ electrodes we try to measure
the voltage against the current at the outer heads.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:54)

Before we close the discussion today let us try to go through some questions which will
help us better understand. What we talked about one can study the standard test methods
for using the Schmidt rebound hammer in the ultrasonic pulse velocity methods. These
methods have standards which require the engineer to carry out the test in the certain
manner and then correct the data, modify the data or modify the raw data before the
exercise of evaluation is carried out. Those standards also give us a range of the values of
the pulse velocity and relate that range to the quality of concrete. It is must that we must
remember that ultrasonic pulse velocity again, does not often give us a direct measure of
the compressive strength itself. What it just gives us, as far as the standards are
concerned, is a measure of the quality of concrete in terms of excellent, good and so on.

1143
If you make a list of available methods to quantitatively study reinforcement corrosion in
concrete that will help you get better in site on non-destructive testing in that particular
area and that is what we talked about when we said that we need to know more about the
total amount corrosion that has occurred till a certain point or the instantaneous rate of
corrosion, as is occurring at that point and time. If you study the details of the natural
potential measurements and the resistivity measurements and find out more about the
interpretation of the result from these methods that will help you understand the method
as well as the method and also the application and the limitations of these tools.

Thank you.

1144
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 35
Measuring permeability in concrete

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

Welcome to another round of discussion on Concrete Engineering and Technology. And

this module 6 to revise basic principles underlying concrete science and engineering,
develop a framework which helps us understand. The present days scenario in concrete
engineering, we developments in admixtures, methods of construction, different
materials being used and so on. And going through some of the issues, which are of
special relevance, in special high performance concretes, and they quality control and
testing, including performance based thinking durability and maintenance.

1145
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)

Now, once we are talking about fundamentals of concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:05)

We have talked a little bit about pores and porosity in concrete, arising out of hydration
in cement.

1146
(Refer Slide Time: 01:13)

An at that time, we have talked about origin of pores and porosity, we have talked about
the nature and characterization of pores, in terms of the total pore volume, the
differential pore volumes and so on. And we also talked about measurement of porosity
in concrete, using mercury inclusion pores symmetry. Now, of course, mercury inclusion
pores symmetry just one of the tools, but we have an idea of the fact that concrete is a
pores material, having pores of different sizes and those pores can be measured.

(Refer Slide Time: 01:54)

1147
Where those pores come from is primarily on account of water added to concretes, being
far in excess of that required for hydration of the cement. Chemically that water being
about 18 to 22 23 percent, and the actual water being added being in the range of 40 to
55 percent in most cases. A lot of water does remain behind in concrete after the
hydration has taken place.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:22)

And this is the kind of picture that we showed, showing cement and water before
hydration, during hydration and at the end of the hydration process. Where in this
particular case we have shown, no cement is remaining and all of the and all the cement
has been converted to hydration products. And this is the total amount of pores that are
formed within concrete, whether they are saturated with water or not is different story,
but yes, this is the amount of space which is available for water to be present. And if
water is driven out leaves that are the amount of space, which is left as pores as far as
concrete is concerned.

1148
(Refer Slide Time: 03:09)

We had looked at this picture, which is representation of aggregates surrounded by

cement piece matrix and this matrix having pores.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:23)

And then that seen a re-iteration of the definition of porosity, which is nothing but a
measure of the void space in a material that is, it is a fraction of the volume of voids to
the total volume. And can be expressed in terms of cc per cc or cc per gram of the
material, and as a percentage and so on.

1149
(Refer Slide Time: 03:47)

The question that we now a start to deal with is that of porosity verses permeability,
porosity as we have discussed is the intrinsic property of the material, measure in terms
of the amount of void space a percentage of the total volume. So, porosity is in intrinsic
property of the material; we can say that, here is a material which is pores which has a
certain amount of total voids, we can talk in terms of the pore size distribution of that
material, but at the end of it is a property of that material.

Permeability on the other hand is the ease with which something can navigate, through
the pores of the material, does in addition to the porosity per say, because obviously a
material from outside can navigate through the pore system, only if there are pores. If
there is no pore, then we are not talking of any navigation or we are not talking of any
permeability. The fact that we are talking of permeability means that, there is a material
which has some pores.

But, in addition to the porosity, there are other things that governed the ease with which
a material from outside can travel through that material. And these depend on factors
such as the pressure of application, properties of the material and so on. So, for example,
there is water, in certain cases water can flow very easily, if we are applying pressure it
flows more easily. The ease being defined in terms of or measured in terms of for
example, the velocity of flow or the quantity of material that flows per unit area, per unit
time and so on.

1150
If instead of water we have another fluid, then the permeability changes, if we are talking
of gases or air moving through the pores media, the concept of permeability needs to be
defined, in terms of gasses permeability. And all this discussion is true even for concrete,
water move through concrete, so we can talk in terms of water permeability of concrete,
gasses, such as carbon dioxide, oxygen.

They move through concrete, they enter concrete if it is dry, therefore the concepts of
gasses diffusion in concrete is equally evaluate; there is ionic diffusion, chlorides from
outside for example, in a marine environment they move into the concrete pores. So, we
have ionic diffusion, the ionic permeability, all these concepts of diffusion in
permeability are applicable as far as concrete is concerned is well. We have talked about
measurement of porosity, and today the discussion would focus on permeability.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:59)

Permeability is measured in units of length per time, we talk of centimeter per second or
meter per second, and we are familiar with the discussion of Darcy’s law that helps of
understand, the flow of water through soils. In concrete the porosity and
interconnectivity of pores and cement paste and micro cracks, especially at the paste
aggregate interface place a very important role. We talked about this, when we are
talking about porosity, these in term that is the porosity and the inter connectivity depend
upon parameter.

1151
Such as, the water cement ratio, the degree of hydration, degree of compaction and the
quantity, and characteristics of the constituent materials that is cement, sand and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:49)

Before we get started with our discussion on permeability, let us look at these two graphs
which are the result of an experimental study, which talks of air permeability index, so
there is something called in air permeability index. If concrete has pores there is a
thought at least that we can understand, that yes if it has pores air will be able to
permeate the through those pores. And if we are able to have a test which will measure
the air permeability of a concrete, that should be somehow related to the water cement
ratio of that concrete, because that really determines the porosity of the concrete.

So, if you look at these points that have been obtained here, we see that there is a lot of
scatter, but it the end of it the basic trend that as the water cement ratio is higher, the air
permeability indexes higher that does not seem to be violated except that. Of course,
depending on the age, and the mix of the concrete and so on, those numbers actually
could be different. What is interesting is this graph here, if we look at a plot of
compressive strength verses permeable voids, and if we look at this range here, in the
range of let us a 30 to 50 MPA of compressive strength of concrete.

The permeable voids percentage varies within a failure large range, what this tells us is
that even though, we say that the strength is related to the water cement ratio. And we
put forward in argument which selves, that if the water cement ratio increases, the total

1152
pores space increases and therefore, the and therefore, they strength goes down, because
this strength is related to the pore spaces through an equation of this nature. All this
understanding becomes very suspect, because we have evidence that they amount of
permeable pores varies quite a lot at a given water cement ratio, or for the same
permeable pores, there is strength range is fairly large.

What this tells us at the end of the day is that, if we are doing performance based
thinking, then permeability needs to be considered at least for the time being; all most
independent criteria for evaluating concrete. Most of our thought process, till date is
governed by the fact that concrete is characterized by a principle parameter called
compressive strength. And so long as compressive strength is under controlled, we have
we have a concrete which needs compressive strength requirements all is well, what this
kind of a diagram shows us, is that as far as durable is concerned.

Because, durability is primarily related to the movement of deleterious ions through the
pore structure of concrete, as far as durability is concerned, we perhaps need to establish
permeability as in independent criteria for characterizing, the performance of a concrete.
We can talk of measurement of permeability as a parameter for quality control, that what
we talked about just now when we said that well, permeability should be used or can be
used as in independent criteria for establishing, and characterizing concrete mixes.

Or there can be a situation, where we are talking about measuring is a two permeability
as part of non-destructive testing and evaluation of a structure. In addition to normal test
which give us results in terms of compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity,
cracking and so on. We can talking in terms of measurement, we can talk in terms of
measuring permeability of concrete in C 2 in the structure.

1153
(Refer Slide Time: 12:41)

Now, out of these two the discussion today, would focus on measuring permeability as a
parameter for a quality control, that is we will be primarily talking about some tests,
which have been proposed, and developed in the last say 20, 25, 30 years. And establish
permeability as a characteristic of concrete, independent of compressive strength.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:12)

One of the tests that comes to mind in this contexts, is the AASHTO, American
association for state an high way transport officers, there test standard quality T277 or
the ASTM is C1202, which is a rapid chloride permeability test. Now, this as the name

1154
suggest is the method for measuring the chloride permeability of concrete. The test
basically consist of testing, a water saturated 50 mm thick, 90 to 100 mm diameter
concrete specimen, subjected to 60 volts of applied DC voltage, for 6 hours using in a
operators, especially design for the purpose.

One reservoir that is on one side we have a reservoir which has 3 percent sodium
chloride solution, and in the other reservoir we have 0.3 mm, any other solution. Now,
chloride permeability is one of the most important parameters that an engineer whose
concerned with durability of concrete in marine environment, or durability of concrete,
on account of likely corrosion of reinforcement, due to chloride (( )) is concerned about.
So, we want to establish how soon, or what will be the level of chloride permeability in
concrete, and this one of the test.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:50)

These picture here, they show the test method as is actually used, this here is the test set
up as is used, and this is actually a schematic representation, this is the concrete disk.
And we apply a voltage of 60 volts across the two faces of concrete; one face of the
concrete is an contact with 0.3 and sodium hydroxide solution, and the other face contact
with the 3 percent sodium chloride solution.

And what we have really try to do is to induce the chlorides to move through the
concrete, except that the measurement is not in terms of movement of chlorides, but it is
the current. That flows on account of application of these 60 volts across the two faces,

1155
and this current is actually measured over period of 6 hours, and we calculate the total
charge that has passed. This picture here is a setup of commercial available setup, where
several of such sells can be test together. So, we can put in several specimens of
concrete, and run the test in a manner that we can get the current values for each of these
channels; and try to get the coulomb values of the charge it has passed for the different
specimens.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:26)

What is really done at the end of it is, the total charge passed is determined, because the
charge, the charge that is passed is related to the current it is a only the integral of the
current water time for the whole of 6 hours, and this is measured in coulombs. Once we
have the i and t data that how much of current is flowing through the two faces or
through the concrete, over a period of 6 hours at periodic intervals, we can convert and
obtain the total charge that has passed.

And that has been qualitatively related to the permeability of concrete, it is not a
quantitative relationship, it is qualitative relationship, and says that if the charge passed
is more than 4000 coulombs, the chloride permeability is high. If it is 2000, and if it is
between 2000 and 4000, it is moderate if it is between 1000 and 2000 it is low, if it is
100, if it is between 100 and 1000 it is very low, and if it is less than 100 it is negligible.

What a user as for as performance based on though processors concerned could do is the
say that well, are you want a concrete to be used and the structure, which has such and

1156
such strength as far as structural design is concerned. But, I want the concrete to have not
more than moderate chloride and permeability, as determined by the ASTM C1202 test.

So, now we have established an independent criterion for evaluating the concrete or the
suitability of a concrete that is going to be use in a structure. A part from the strength
criteria which is coming from the structural design, there is a durability criteria which is
coming from the point of view of chloride permeability, defined in terms of the rapid
chloride permeability test. And a specific number or a specific target is given that it
should not be more than moderate.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:48)

This test obviously has certain limitation; the current past is related to the ionic
conductivity of the pore solution, which is related to its ionic composition. What is
happening in this test is that at the end of it, this is the concrete piece or the specimen,
and we are applying a charge, which causes this current to flow through the concrete. So,
even though we are trying to measure the current, what we are effectively trying to do is
to determine the resistance of the concrete.

And how it changes over time, because once the resistance changes the current also
changes. Now, once this is the mechanics of the test what we are really concerned about
is, that the ionic composition of the pore solution, what kind of ions are present that
would have some bearing on the ease with which the current can flow through this
concrete. The measurements are made before study state migration is achieved, so it is

1157
not steady state measurement, we put the operators together, switch on the equipment
and start measurements right away, for a period of say 6 hours, so it is not a steady state
measurement.

The voltage applies tends to increase the temperature, so as I said the test is a basically a
conductivity of the concrete, and it is correlation with chloride and permeability. Thus,
any conducting material present in the sample will create a bias in the test, and causing
the results to be higher. So, if there is more conductivity, i will be higher that is the
current will be higher, and therefore, we will get results which would indicate that the
coulombs are higher.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:45)

Another variation from the rapid chloride permeability test, is the so called salt ponding
test, which has been standardized in AASHTO T259, the previous one was AASHTO
T277. Now, in this test what is done is that three slabs having a certain area, having a
certain minimum thickness, they are moist cured for 14 days is stored in drying room at
50 percent relative humanity for 28 days. And after this a 3 percent sodium chloride
solution is ponded on the top surface, for a period of 90 days. While the bottom of faces
left exposed to the drying environment, the slabs are removed from the drying
environment and the concentration of chlorides in thick slices or in slices is determined.

1158
(Refer Slide Time: 21:39)

So, if we look at the diagrammatic representation of this test, what it does is we have a
concrete sample which is sealed on the sides is exposed to a 50 percent relative humidity
atmosphere or this end, ponded with 3 percent sodium chloride solution on the other.
And we have the sodium chloride solution permeating into the concrete. and at the end of
the 90 day period, we try to take a core out of this concrete specimen cut that into slices,
and determine the chloride concentration in the different slices.

So, in this slice which is the closest to the surface, the concentrations are going to be
higher and as we go deeper into the concrete the concentration will go down. So,
effectively what we try to do is to try to determine what is the chloride and
concentration, and how it varies with depth that is, we take slices from the surface inside
and measure the chloride concentration. This chloride concentration can be measured by
powdering the concrete, extracting the chlorides into an acid or water solution, and then
carrying out a normal titration or an ions (( )) electrode method.

And finally, the evaluation on the basis of T259 is based on the chloride concentration in
a given disk, or a diffusion coefficient which can be estimated, based on this distribution
that we get, based on this profile. It is easy to understand that, if a concrete has to the
distribution which is shown green here, compare to another concrete which has chloride
concentrations like this. The red concrete has more porosity or higher chloride
permeability, compare to the concrete which gives us the distribution that shown in

1159
green. So, basically through a ponding test what we try to do, is actually measure the
chloride concentrations that are achieved within a concrete slab at the end of 90 day or a
3 month exposure period.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:16)

The limitations of this test obviously are it is a complicated testing condition, and the
crudeness of the evaluation. The testing conditions are complicated, because even the
specimen preparation and the pretreatment is quite complicated, preparation was slab,
moist curing, dry curing at 50 percent RH for 28 days. And then having the concrete dry
at one end, saturated with a sodium chloride solution on the other, promoting or driving
the sodium chloride solution into concrete, on account of this gradient arising out of the
dry weather.

Or the dry environment in this side of the concrete slab, it is quite a complicated testing
condition. The solve ponding test does provide a crude, one dimensional provide ingress
profile, but this profile is not a just function of the chloride diffusion. And since the
specimens have been left to dry for 28 days, there is an initial sorption effect, when the
slabs are first exposed to the solution. Because, there is a trying involved, because the
specimens that are used in the tests are initially dry, so it is not only the chloride ions that
move in, but also the water that moves into the concrete.

And that complicates the behavior, and that complicates any modeling that a scientist or
an engineer to might like to do for this test, so all this contributes to the complicated

1160
testing conditions. And at the end of it we need to wait for a period of 90 days, before we
can actually pronounce a judgment as to whether or not a concrete is acceptable. Of
course, the merit of this test is the fact that, it is close to the actual exposure conditions of
concrete, at least in marine environment we can say that yes, the concrete is going to be
subjected to salt water.

Or immense in salt water in certain cases, and we would like to know how much of salt
water penetrate, you would like to predict that but how much we can predict, on the basic
of a 90 day test compare to the service life of a structure, which could be several tends of
years that is a different question all together. Thus, as far as the 259 and the 277 are
concerned, both of them are give us results as far as chloride permeability concerned; in
one case the results are available and let say about 6 to 10 hours. Because, the actual test
in 277 is for 6 hours, and if we give or take a couple of more hours for preparation and so
on, the results are available very quickly. But, into the case of two five nine the results
are available only after period of 3 months.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:24)

Continuing the discussion on chloride permeability, there is a bulk diffusion test, call the
Node Test NTBuild 443, and this test is basically similar to the solve ponding test,
except that instead of being dry for 28 days, the test is specimen is saturated with lying
water, to prevent any initial option effect. And also instead of coating just the sides of the
sample, and leaving one face exposed to air, the only face left uncovered is the one

1161
exposed to 2.8 M NaCl. So, instead of a 3 percent NaCl solution, we us a 2.8 M NaCl
solution in this case, and the period of exposure is at least 35 days.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:13)

So, we can read more about the details of the tests, but the representation of the how the
test is actually carried out. So, as against 259 where this space was open, and part of the
reason for driving the chlorides into the concrete was the drying that was occurring on
this face. In this case here the specimen saturated with lying water to get read of the
sorption effects in a to get read of the sorption effect initially, and also ensure that the
movement of chloride occurs only on account of diffusion.

The initially the pore solution will be free of any chloride ions, once these expression
pores to 2.8 M NaCl, the chloride ions would begin to move into the concrete. And again
we would get a chloride profile, which will look like something like this, where the
surface will have a large amount of chlorides as we go deeper into the specimen, the
concentrations would become smaller. If we want to compare the chloride concentrations
in this test, with respect to those obtained in the 259, it is difficult to say, but on the face
of it can be said that they are likely to be lower.

For the simple reason that the period of exposure here is lower, we are just talking for 35
day, test compare to the 90 date ponding there, plus the fact that in the 259, we were
driving the chlorides into the concrete along with water by having and evaporation or the
drying of concrete at the other face, which is not happening here. In this case of course,

1162
he talk in terms of the asset soluble, and the water soluble chloride ion content, and the
engineers can decide what kind of specification they want to write.

It can be said that well, we want the concrete when tested with this standard should not
have an acid soluble chloride content, at a particular depth exceeding a certain number.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:06)

We can write a specification which sells that the total chlorides at x equal to 10 mm
should not exceed some number, another engineer could say I would like to have a
concrete where the soluble chlorides at x equal to 15 mm should not exceed a certain
number. So, this is what we want to state by saying that we are getting into performance
based is specifications, we are not talking only in terms of the, the strength of the
concrete, but also in terms of the actual chloride permeability of concrete.

Now, what I wanted to point out with this slide was really the fact that, these tests some
of them are as resend or as old whichever we looked it, from 1991 and so on, which
means that we are looking at test which have been developed in just about the last 20, 25
years. And that means that they have a short history, and some of these tests are stilled in
the research stage, some of them are being practiced, a part from the novelty of these
tests, let us continue with our discussion on some other forms of chloride permeability
testing.

1163
(Refer Slide Time: 31:44)

And here, we have the pressure penetration technique, where the chloride solution is
pushed into the concrete under pressure. And the concrete specimen is drawn out and
spread which silver nitrate, and we get a white deposit in areas where the chlorides have
penetrated. So, in a manner of speaking this test is similar to that, we carry out when we
measure the carbonation depth of course, in that case what we are trying to do is
measured what area is calcium hydroxide has been lossed by spring phenolphthalein.

In this area, in this case we are trying to measure the areas where chlorides have reached
within the concrete, and we do that by spring the solution of silver nitrate. And silver
nitrate in the presence of chloride becomes silver chloride, and that is the white deposit
or the white press that we see. So, well it is not easy to have a unique value of this step,
because they profile of this white color will not be very regular, they will be aggregates
within which will distort the profile further.

But, that is what an engineer has to decide, how to arrive at some kind of a measure of
average depth of chloride penetration at the end of the test. Obviously things such as the
is specimen preparation, the chloride concentration, the load to be applied, the duration
for which it is to be a applied and so on, that have all to be standardized in this kind of
testing.

1164
(Refer Slide Time: 33:34)

So, in principle what we have is a lot of methods use a setup, which is summarized here,
we have a concrete specimen, on one side we have chloride reach environment, on the
other side we have a environment which is not having chlorides to begin with. And then
we try to push the chlorides through the concrete on to the other side, now if we apply a
direct current here, the test becomes similar to or the test basically becomes the T277,
that is rapid chloride permeability test.

If we do not apply any current externally it becomes of pure, diffusion sell kind of a
setup, where we have to wait for the chlorides to emerge on to the other side, before we
can talking in terms of the permeability, or the chloride formability of this concrete in
between. When we are trying to low diffusion kind of a setup, without accelerating the
chloride movement, obviously the test could go on for a very long time, unless we are
able to reduce the thickness of the concrete which we are testing.

If we are able to get a very thins lies of concrete yes, then we can try to have results very
quickly, but the problem of creating that thins likes of concrete, for a test like this would
be in terms of creating or generating or causing cracks in the concrete. And therefore,
that is the very, very severe limitation, in terms of the applicability of a pure diffusion
sell kind of a test.

Of course, using these ports here, we could use a reference electrode and just deep the
electrode here, at different points in time may be after a month, another month and so on.

1165
And try to see whether or not, the chlorides have reach the other end of this chamber
here, or what is the concentration; and once we know the concentration of chlorides in
that chamber, and we know the volume of the water or whatever we are using in that
chamber.

We know the area of the concrete through which the chlorides are diffusing, the time that
is taking and the thickness of the concrete sample; this information is enough for us to be
able to estimate or calculate the permeability of concrete, or the chloride formability of
concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:47)

Now, with this kind of discussion on chloride permeability of concretes specimens or

concrete, let us move towards the permeability of concrete for other material, such as
water or gases. The liquid permeability water is generally of interest to us, we measuring
two ways, one is by the rate of inflow or outflow, and that there is a by a depth of
penetration at a given time, or in a given time.

We will talk about these two test a little bit in the next slide and so on, they helpers
establish or estimate the coefficient of permeability of the concrete, based on either the
Darcy’s equation or the Valenta equation from the depth of penetration.

1166
(Refer Slide Time: 37:29)

Now, let see what the water permeability of concrete the so called output method or the
constant had method means. It means that first of all the method is suited for concretes
which are highly permeable, that is a concrete sample which is place like this, and water
is put here, and a pressure is applied, water actually flows out from the other side of the
concrete sample. And we can collect a certain reasonable amount of water, in a
reasonable time frame.

The test is carried out using a disc of concrete and involves water flowing through it at a
steady rate, and to accelerate the process of course, pressure can be applied, but the
pressure to be applied is limited by the fact that concrete cannot be subjected to bending.
The, because the moment the concrete bends and being rigid tension, the concrete will
simply break, we do not want the concrete to break, we want only the water move
through the concrete, and not causing any flexure cracks in the concrete.

So, the pressure applied has to be limited, from that consideration and it should be bond
in mind that the this cannot be made to thin, the permeability of concrete being
essentially low, the experiments could take a fairly long time.

1167
(Refer Slide Time: 38:57)

To address this we often carry out the test using the depth of penetration method in this
case what we do, is that basically a modification of the above tests, and is carried out to
using larger specimens, and what is applied at pressure at one end that does not change.
What happens is that after fix time interval, they specimens are split open and the depth
of water penetration is observed. So, we have a concrete cylinder or a concrete specimen
here, we apply what are pressure on this, and at the end of certain fix time is split the
cylinder, and try to see how much is the depth of penetration of water.

And this depth of penetration of water again is not so easy to measure, because of
reasons arising from practical consideration, in terms of the presence of aggregates that
non regularity of the pore structure and so on. At times if this sealing here at the edges is
not very properly done, it is likely that the water can move along the edges, and penetrate
into the concrete from the sides. In which case, instead of getting a profile like that in
shown here, we may get a profile which is something like this, and this water coming
from the sides; and that something which is highly undesirable as far as this test is
concerned.

So, observing all these pre-corrosion is if we are able to carry out this test yes, the depth
of penetration is representative of the water permeability of the concrete that we are
testing. There are some recommendations which allows also to estimate the actual
permeability, in terms of unit such as the centimeters per second or meters the per second

1168
based on this height age, or the depth of the penetration of water; at certain pressure that
occurs over a certain period of time.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:58)

This here is the test for sorptivity of concrete that is a relatively new test which were a
concrete specimen, which is 100 mm diameter, 50 mm thick is exposed to water with the
filter paper raped on it. And it is selected intervals ranging from 1 to 25 minutes, the
sample is removed from the water stopwatch is stopped, so we are watching or we are
measuring the penetration of water, or they absorption of water by this is specimen, in a
matter of minutes.

And this access water is blotted of with the damp paper towel, and the sample is weight
and put back in the shallow pan of water, for the experiment to be continued, and what
we able to record is the gain and mass per unit area over the density of water. This if it is
plotted with square root of elapse time, the slop of this line gives us the sorptivity value.
So, we really obtained the volume of water absorbed divided by the area of specimen,
and if we plotted with respect to the root of time, we get a constant or a straight line and
the slope of which is reported as the sorptivity value.

So, basically what we are saying is that we are looking for a measure of water absorption
in the concrete, and this test can be completed fairly quickly, except for the time that is
required to be prepared the specimen the first place. I must refer you to that this

1169
document, which is largely the spaces of our discussion today for water permeability as
well as chloride permeability of concretes.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:04)

Now, before we close let us try to think of some questions that we want to take home, we
could collect data relating to different parameters related to concrete permeability. We
could use compressive strength as the base parameter, we could try to gets sorptivity
values is reported in the literature with different concretes, we could get a RCPT values,
we could get values from the T259 kind of test and so on, and try to see how they are
related with each other.

We could make a list of the standard tests, for measurement of chloride and water
permeability of course, we have mentioned some of the test in this discussion today. But,
there are a lot of others, and I think that if we are motivated enough, and interested in the
subject, you would look up the literature and come up with several other tests. We could
find out, if there are any performance based is specifications for concrete that may be
used in a structure on the basis of chloride or water permeability.

Like the examples that we talks about when we were discussing the results, from T277or
T259 and so on. Like chloride ion and water permeability, can we talk in terms of
oxygen or nitrogen permeability of concrete that is a question that I would leave with
you to ponder about, thank you. Before the close the discussion, let me show you a

1170
diffusion cell kind of a setup, which can obviously modified to carry out test in
accordance with ASTM C1202 are AASHTO 277.

This is one of the selves or the one of the reservoir with the hollow space here, which can
be filled with either sodium hydroxide or water or a chloride solution. This is a wire
mesh which is used to a apply current, if the current is being paced in between the two
reservoir like this, so we have two reservoir an either side of concrete, there is a concrete
block in between measuring about 90 to 100 mm diameter, 50 mm thick, and held
together using bolds and so on.

If we want the apply current we can use wire measures like this to apply the current, the
simple cell look something like this we have a reservoir on the other, there is a concrete
disc in between, and the whole thing is helped together with bolts. So, if we want to
regularly sample, whether the chlorides are coming on to the other side or not, whether
they are traversing the concrete thickness or the or through the concrete or not what is
the rate at which they are doing that.

We can always have probes through these holes that are there on the reservoirs, as for as
T277 kind of test are concerned, we can use these wires which are connected to the
measures that we saw, to impresses certain amount of current, across the two phases of
concrete.

1171
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 36
Some additional topics

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

Welcome to another lecture in this module, on Concrete Engineering and Technology,

where we are talking about different aspects relating to concrete construction, the
material proportioning, maintenance of concrete structures and so on and so forth.

1172
(Refer Slide Time: 00:37)

Now, apart from these subjects, which have been covered in the different lectures that we
have had in this module, there are a few things, which were not mentioned perhaps
when, we were talking about those aspects, and I would like to definitely share some of
those things with you. So, today’s lecture, we will talk about a couple of more or less
divergent issue, some of which have been covered in previous discussions, and you will
have to relate them to those topics, after we have gone through the whole lecture.

Now, the first thing that comes to my mind, which we did not spend too much time on,
was mixing of concrete. A concrete is a mixture of cement, coarse aggregate, fine
aggregate and water and if we want to use chemical and mineral admixtures. But the
whole trick depends on, how does the concrete mix or how is the concrete mixed, we
have to get a uniform mix, a homogeneous mix and there are different ways of doing it.

1173
(Refer Slide Time: 01:58)

For example, as far as the process is concerned, mixing is the process of combining the
constituents, water, cement, aggregates that is, coarse and fine, and admixtures to obtain
a homogeneous uniform mass and that is what we call, concrete. Now, in case, the
concrete is not homogeneous, we can have difficulties in terms of, the potential strength
may not be achieved, on account of inadequate hydration. So, we are talking of potential
strength here because, at the end of it, when we mix the concrete and we allow it to
hydrate with curing and so on.

There is a strength that, it can achieve, there is a strength, beyond which a particular mix
depending on its proportions, will not gain the strength. Now, if the mix is not
homogenously mixed, it is not properly mixed, even that potential strength may not be
reached. We can expect larger variations in the recorded strength because, different parts
of the concrete will have ingredients, which are different and therefore, we can expect
different strength.

So, this gives rise to a greater variation in the compressive strength that, we will get as
far as the cubes is concerned, and also lead to a difference in the quality of concrete
actually used in the construction. One must remember that, at the end of it, testing cubes
is only a part of the quality control exercise. The real thing is that, the entire structure or
whatever is designed to be, of a particular grade of concrete and so on, should all have
the same properties.

1174
And that is obviously, something that is going to be compromised, if the concrete is not
properly mixed. We could have erratic workability causing difficulty in placing because
obviously, if the concrete has not been mixed properly, different parts of concrete or
different batches of concrete would have been mixed differently, leading to different
properties of the fresh concrete. And that would give an erratic behavior as far as the
workability of concrete is concerned, and the same thing can be said about the air
content.

So, basically improper mixing will affect the properties of fresh as well as hardened
concrete and that is something, which we want to avoid. And therefore, we must pay
close attention to achieving a uniform homogeneous mass at the end of the mixing
process. Now, how can the concrete be mixed, it can be mixed by hand, which is manual
or it can be mixed in a mixer, which will basically a machine or sometimes that is mixed
in a plant.

Now, the difference between the concrete mixed in a mixer, in the plant, the way i
intended is the following. When we do experiments in the laboratory, whether it is for
academic purposes, for research purposes or for that matter to cry and find out the most
appropriate mix, for a particular construction project and that time we use a mixer. But,
that is not the same thing as using the actual mixer, which is going to be used for mixing
the concrete, which is going to be used for the project.

Now, the question is, whether the concrete mixed in a mixer, in the laboratory and the
concrete mixed using a mixer, in a ready mixed concrete plant, will the properties of
these concretes be different. And that is the kind of question, which we need to answer,
when we are talking of when we are talking about mechanized construction where, we
are talking about drawing a protocols for quality control of concrete construction, in a
mechanized environment.

So, we should know, what are the kind of factors or parameters that, effect the concrete
quality and pay attention to minimizing any such effects so that, as far as possible, the
concrete that we get is uniform and homogeneous. Of course, as far as hand mixing is
concerned or mixing by hand or manually that is a completely different method and can
be used only for very, very small construction projects.

1175
(Refer Slide Time: 06:55)

Now, this picture here shows the concrete being mixed by hand and the person is using
basically, a shovel to keep mixing the concrete, till in his judgment, the concrete attains a
homogeneous look. This is an example of a mixer that we sometimes use in the lab for
laboratory scale studies; this here is a plant operation for producing a ready mix concrete.
So, the difference between the mixer that is used in a plant and the mixer that is used in
the laboratory is primarily in terms of the size of the mixer and obviously, also the kind
of mixing method that is used, as we will see shortly.

Another kind of mixing that goes on in concrete construction and we must be aware of
that is when the concrete is being transported from the batching plant to the construction
site and that mixing is in advertent, because the intension of that process in an agitator
truck is not really to mix the concrete unless is so designed but basically to keep the
concrete agitated and ensure that the concrete does not set.

1176
(Refer Slide Time: 08:43)

Now, let us talk little bit about the manual mixing, it is obviously acceptable only for
very small scale operation is where, it is simply impossible to get ready mix concrete or
to setup a plant for carrying out the operation or even smaller in the sense that we do not
even want to bring a mixer to site. It is cost effective at that scale, because if we insist
that for those kinds of operations involving say 10 liters or 15 liters of concrete, we need
to have a mixer, there it might become very expensive.

But that something which the engineer has to decide, because there is a compromise
involved as far as the quality is concerned. So, if the decision is made that well, quality
must be retained or must be maintained at all cost then, regardless of the cost, hand
mixing may be not allowed. Of course, the way hand mixing or manual mixing operates,
we can only expect poor homogenization, we cannot expect a very homogeneous mix at
the end of a hand mix process.

The whole process as far as hand mixing is concerned, is matter of fact, cannot be done
for low water content mixes. The concretes in that case, are so stiff that, it simply beyond
the power of an individual, to be able to mix the concrete and by that token, when we are
doing the manual mixing in concrete, we invariably land up using a large amount of
water. In contrast to that, as far as mechanical mixing or mixing using mixers is
concerned, it is obvious that, we can mobilize a lot of energy.

1177
Therefore, the concrete that we get is quickly obtain that is, the mixing process takes a
lot less time, the homogenization is good and it is an absolute requirement as far as large
scale projects are concerned. But it requires a lot of investment that, if you setting up a
plant then, obviously, there is a whole lot of logistics, there is a lot of investment to be
done, before the concrete is starts to be produced. As I stated earlier, mixing in the
laboratory, when a small mixture is used, is different from mixing in a RMC plant, the
ready mix concrete plant. And the scale being different, the properties could be different
and this is something, which one needs to investigate from a research point of view as
well as from an engineering perspective.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:11)

As far as the mixing process now is concerned, we can talk in terms of keyword such as
dry mixing that is, mixing of ingredients other than water. That is to say that, we just mix
cement, sand and coarse aggregate first and then, is and then, adds water which is called
wet mixing. We could always do the process all together, when all the ingredients are put
into place and the mixing starts. Recall that, while discussing shotcrete, we talked about
a wet process and a dry process as far as shotcreting is concerned.

So, in shotcreting, largely the mixing is dry, in the dry process of shotcreting, the mixing
process really dry and no effort is really made to mix the concrete with water, which is
just added at the nozzle before the concrete is actually sprayed from the nozzle, on to the
surface where, it is being applied. As against that, as far as the wet process of shotcreting

1178
is concerned, it is a regularly wet mixed concrete, which is being transported through the
nozzle to the site of application.

Now, sometimes, in order to ensure proper mixing, since there are no standards to
evaluate, whether the concrete has been actually mixed to the extent that, it has become
homogeneous specifications, may talk in terms of a minimum mixing time. Now, the
minimum mixing time is therefore, broken up into the time when, the ingredients start
getting loaded on to the mixer and finally, the concrete is poured out of the mixer.

It is not necessary really that, all that mixing time is required and therefore, one might
like to study the actual concrete being used at different mixing times, if the cycle time
involved is at a premium. While mixing, another keyword that comes in is the fact that,
there is continuous mixing during transportation using agitator trucks, which often
operate at different RPM. So, there can be requirements, which say that, well while the
concrete is being transported, it should be churned at least at a certain rpm.

We cannot have a very low RPM and at the same time it cannot be very high, we can at
the same time talk in terms of a situation where, the concrete will be vigorously mixed,
just before it is placed at site that is, it would be gradually mixed while it is being
transported. But once the concrete agitated truck reaches the concrete placement site, it
will be vigorously mixed for a period of say, 15 seconds or 30 seconds in order to, ensure
that, if at all there has been a problem during the gradual mixing process or the agitation
process that is, taken care of, by this vigorous mixing.

Related to this issue is one of, secondary addition of water and or admixture at the site of
placement usually, all the ingredients need to be mixed at the plant and the concrete is
transported in a manner that, it is simply ready to place. In certain cases, however, it
might be required that, some water or some admixture is used or is added to the concrete,
juts before it is placed. An example in this context could be, if we want to use
accelerators now, there is no way, we would like to use an accelerator at the plant
because of, the uncertainties involved in the transportation time.

However, at the site of placement, we may like to use the accelerator because, at that
time, it is known that, well now, we are ready to place the concrete and once placed in
position, we want the strength development to be accelerated. So, in these kind of cases,

1179
when we are talking in terms of secondary addition of water and admixtures, or
admixtures.

Then, one has to be very careful in designing the entire mixing process, as to what kind
of additions will take place at the plant, what kind of additions will take place at the site
because, related to this discussion of designing the mixing process, is the issue of quality
control. The moment we say that, only a part of the water will be added at the plant and
the remaining water with the admixture and so on will be added at the site, we have the
problem that, what kind of quality control values, we will use when, we are accepting the
concrete from the plant and taking it to site. So, these are some of the difficulties, which
we must keep in mind, when we design the mixing process for a specific project.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:23)

Now, let us talk a little bit about the mixers, which can be classified on the basis of
volume or orientations for volume mixers, we can talk in terms of batch or continuous
mixers. Batch mixers means, there is a fixed batch or a fixed volume, which can be
mixed, and which could be mixed in that mixer at one time. It could be 1 cubic meter, 5
cubic meter, 10 cubic meters whatever it is or it could be a continuous process where, all
the ingredients are being fed into the mixer and we have a continuous supply of concrete
at the other end. As far as orientation is concerned, we could talk in terms of vertical or a
horizontal mixers depending on, what is the orientation of the axis, about which the
blades of the mixer are rotating. This here for example, shows a vertical mixer where, the

1180
blades are operating where the blades are rotating about a vertical axis this here is a
horizontal mixer where, the blades will rotate about a horizontal axis. We can also talk in
terms of different mixers being classified, in terms of whether they are pan mixers or
they are drum type mixers.

This here, is a pan mixer where, one surface, on which the concrete is being mixed in the
mixer or one surface of the mixer is flat, drum type mixers are those where, the concrete
is really mixed in a drum and this mixer here for example, is just one of the examples of
drum type mixers.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:15)

Now, coming to the kind of parameters, that affect the mixing process, one could be
energy or specific energy that is, the amount of energy that is used per unit mass of the
concrete being mixed. And this parameter, if we could quantify this, would be very
different for manual mixing or for mechanical mixing. As far as mechanical mixing
again, how much energy we need in order to produce a concrete, which is uniform
homogenous.

We must remember that, this energy is related to the type of concrete being mixed in
terms of its properties for example, whether the concrete that, we are mixing is stiff. And
the materials in that proportions, whether we are using round aggregates or crust stone
aggregates, whether we are using a certain chemical admixture or not and so on. So, the
amount of energy that is required to produce a concrete, which is acceptable, depends not

1181
only on the type of mixer, the RPM, the time that is, involved but, also the ingredients
that, we are using and their proportions.

As I said, in the case of mechanical mixers in the case of mechanical mixers, the energy
is also related to the RPM or the revolutions per minute of the mixer, if the mixer rotates
more rapidly or less or less rapidly and so on, and also the time of mixing. So, indeed
since energy that we are using to mix the concrete, is such an elusive property, it is
easiest to talk in terms of a minimum mixing time as far as, the specification is
concerned.

If I was asked that, given this mixer, how should be go about operating it, in order to
produce a uniform concrete, I would say, well let us mix the concrete for 2 minutes.
Because, that is something, which is easiest to measure, in the absence of a direct
measurement of the homogeneous nature or the uniformity of concrete, this discussion of
energy being related to the property that we want. In this case, the mixing energy to the
workability in the air content and making sure that the concrete is homogenous, this
discussion is pretty similar in the case of compaction of concrete.

We can compact concrete manually but temping with rods and that is, what we do for
example, in the slump test or when we are measuring the air content similarly, we
compact the concrete using internal of form vibrators. And there also, it is the nature of
the vibrator as well as the time of vibration, which is important other than the nature of
the concrete that is, being vibrated to the level of final compaction. So, this is something
which, as concrete engineers of the 21 st century, you must remember.

1182
(Refer Slide Time: 21:47)

This here is a typical power consumption behavior observed in a test where, the power
consumption is monitored over a period of let us say, 5 minutes, while the mixing is
being done and different ingredients are being added. So, I do not have any reason to
explain this graph in very great detail except that, one must remember that, this is the
kind of work that, one needs to do, if we are trying to evaluate a particular mixer.

If a particular mixer has to be evaluated then, we have to find out what is the kind of
consumption of power that it has, how much time does it take to reach a situation where,
the power consumption becomes stable, where we can say that, the concrete has become
uniform.

1183
(Refer Slide Time: 22:37)

Enough about the mixing of concrete, I think, I have given enough pointers for you, to be
able to do some self-study and understand the mixing process a little better. Now, let us
take a look at some of the other small bits of information, interesting applications and so
on, for some of the other topics that, we have already covered. Now, the first in this
series is self-compacting concrete, we have already talked about self-compacting
concrete in detail, the mix proportions, the kind of test that, we need to carry out and so
on.

(Refer Slide Time: 23:28)

1184
So, what we will do today is just see some of the applications, which we missed out the
last time here, is a test being done for self-compacting concrete, as against conventional
concrete. So, this here is conventional concrete and this is the self-compacting concrete
and this is the fill box test. And we can see that, when concrete is poured into this box
using this funnel here, conventional concrete does not even conventional concrete cannot
negotiate these pipes, which have been put in place to stimulate the reinforcement that,
concrete has to go through.

Compared to that, if we use a self-compacting concrete mix, more or less the surface that
we get is horizontal except that, it is not truly horizontal. And the level or the extent, to
which the surface deviates from the horizontal, is actually a measure of the self-
compactability of that concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:33)

Now, as far as, self-compacting concrete application is concerned, these here are
complex shapes, which have been cast, and which casting has been facilitated by the use
of self-compacting concrete. Now, in a shape of this nature, if we were to use
conventional concrete, there are different ways of doing it. But, we will always have
some kind of construction joints because, you must remember that, all these legs whether
it is these two verticals or it is this horizontal, that will also have reinforcement.

Couple with the fact that, if we pour concrete here and expect it to flow in this direction
that is, asking conventional concrete too much, that simply does not happen. Moving the

1185
concrete with a vibrator or facilitating the movement of concrete by a vibrator or a
needle that also, is not a very good idea. So, examples of this nature show us, how self-
compacting concrete help us produce precast elements, which could be of more
complicated shapes without necessarily having construction joints.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:50)

This picture here, shows the use of self-compacting concrete in the precast industry,
there is concrete members, as can be seen here are being cast using concrete with very
little intervention manually and these people here are just doing some preliminary or
some simple leveling operations. So, that is another application of self-compacting
concrete or how self-compacting concrete mix the life easier as far as the concrete
engineer is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:29)

1186
These pictures here are that of, an application of self-compacting concrete where, the
concrete had to be poured in a portion like this. Now, you can imagine that, if
conventional concrete was to be poured then, it will be difficult to ensure the kind of
joint that, we want at the top even, if we were to even if it was possible to pour the
concrete into this congested reinforcement for a certain height. If it is self-compacting
concrete of course, then, all that needs to be done is, to cover this entire portion, which
shuttering and pour the concrete from one end and the wall is completed.

(Refer Slide Time: 27:22)

This here is another example of application of a self-compacting concrete in the

renovation of the royal theatre at Hauge, in the Netherlands. I must say that, Netherlands

1187
was one of the countries, which in the late 90’s was at the forefront of the development
of self-compacting concretes and it’s application in different projects. So, at the end of it,
use of self-compacting concrete simply means, pouring the concrete in the literal sense
of the world and it makes the construction more easy and fast.

(Refer Slide Time: 28:06)

Now, coming out of self-compacting concrete and moving towards roller compacted
concrete, we had talked that, concrete in roller compacted concrete is compacted using
vibratory rollers. And in that case, the concrete should be dry to the extent that, it is able
to resist the sinking of the roller and wet to the extent that, the mortar can be distributed
within the concrete during vibration.

And as a result, we wanted very dry that is, zero slump kind of concrete placed using
dump trucks and so on. And found applications in two areas largely, one was dams,
gravity dams particularly, and the other was pavements.

1188
(Refer Slide Time: 28:46)

As far as a diagram is concerned, if you want to construct this block, we had talked about
normal construction using these three blocks. And then, we had talked about roller
compacted concrete where, we are talking about layered construction where, this layer is
placed first on top of that, this layer and finally, this layer.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:15)

So, Now, an interesting innovation beyond this point is a construction, which is of this
nature where, instead of the layers being truly horizontal, somebody comes up with the
idea that, let us cast concrete, which is also having a slope.

1189
(Refer Slide Time: 29:38)

So, the layers are not truly horizontal but, we try to construct layers, which are of this
geometry now, this speeds up the construction quite a lot, as was reported in this paper.
So, the idea of showing this innovation here, is to show that, innovation never stops, we
have to continue to innovate, we have to continue to look at ways and means where, the
method that, we are using can be better utilized, can be more effectively utilized, to reach
the purpose that we want to achieve.

After all, why did we go into roller compacted concrete, why do we want to go into
layered construction compared to block construction, there are certain fit falls though of
course, there are certain advantages and that is why, we want to do it. Is there a way of
improving the productivity further and this here, is a classic example where, the
productivity or the construction rate is improved, if we innovate and we try to have the
casting being done in layers, which are sloping.

1190
(Refer Slide Time: 30:48)

In another application, we are talked about mass concrete and we are talked about
monitoring the temperature in the mass concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:56)

Here also, let me recall that, the block and the slab if you compare, the surface area of
the slab is much more and therefore, the dissipation of heat takes place more easily in a
slab than in a block. And as a result of that, if the same amount of heat is liberated in the
two pores, one in a block and another in a slab, it is more easily dissipated from a slab
than a block.

1191
(Refer Slide Time: 31:27)

Now, this is the crux of the discussion as far as mass concrete is concerned, as far as
thermal stresses are concerned and that is something, which we have talked about in
greater detail, earlier. We have talked about the temperature variations over time where,
the temperature in the concrete block changes, on account of the continued hydration and
the release of the heat of hydration and the extent of temperature rise, depends on the
difference between the temperature, depends on the difference of the heat that is
generated and the heat that is dissipated by way of radiation, convection and so on.

And then, we have said that, if the temperature differences or the thermal radiance build
up, we also have a stress buildup in the concrete. And that stress development again
occurs over time, as more and more thermal radiance develop in the part of the in parts
of the concrete where, hydration is going on. At the same time, that is the strength
development going on and what we have concerned about is cracking. Now, cracking we
had discussed would be related to some kind of a stress to the strength develop.

So, if the strength that has been developed at a particular point and time, is such the rate
can withstand the stress, we will not have cracks but, if the strength is lower than the
stress developed then, we will have cracks.

1192
(Refer Slide Time: 32:52)

And that is the kind of discussion, that we said, gives us a parameter call, the thermal
cracking index, which is the ratio of the tensile strength and the maximum tensile stress
of concrete. And this maximum tensile stress is the key operator because, the tensile
stress itself varies over time of course, like we had discussed just now. Higher the
thermal cracking index, the better it is because, it tells us that, we have more strength
than the stress, which is being developed and indeed as far as the tensile strength is
concerned.

It should be taken at the time, when we are talking about the peak thermal stress, there is
no point in taking the design tensile strength of concrete, which will be achieved after 28
days or 56 days. And then, trying to determine whether or not, a particular concrete will
crack, if the peak tensile stress is being developed at 7 days or 8 days or 4 days. Indeed
the TCI time dependent and hence, in other words, the thermal cracking index is
depending on time and hence, needs to be calculated at different ages and the minimum
should be taken for further studies.

1193
(Refer Slide Time: 34:04)

So, this is all that we had done, we had talked in terms of a probability of cracking and
thermal cracking index. If the thermal cracking index is 1 that is, the peak stress that is
developed and the strength developed is the same then, we really do not know sometimes
it may crack, sometimes it may not. And therefore, the probability of cracking has been
given as 0.5 whereas, if we move towards a higher number here, we have more strength
than the stress developed and that is why, the probability of cracking goes down.

And similarly, if the cracking index is lower than 1 well then, it is simply means that, we
do not have adequate strength and the probability of thermal stress induced cracking
occurring is very large.

1194
(Refer Slide Time: 34:51)

(Refer Slide Time: 34:56)

Now, this is something, which we have done earlier, what we had also covered briefly
was experiments where, the temperatures in the concrete blocks was being monitored.

1195
(Refer Slide Time: 35:02)

And using analytical tools, the monitor temperature, the actual temperature in these
blocks was compared with that predicted using all kinds of heat equations. The equations
that help us understand the rate of heat liberation the rate of heat liberation, the rates at
which the heats are transported through the concrete and the rates, at which it is
dissipated into the atmosphere. So, once we do all that mathematical modeling, at the end
of it, the temperatures that we get from simulations should match with the temperatures,
that are obtained in the block.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:47)

1196
Now, this is something, which was talked about and we found that, well within a certain
boundary of error or a certain limit as far as the differences are concerned, the
temperatures are more or less similar, at least the profiles are similar and the extent, to
which the temperatures differ is largely within acceptable band.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:26)

Now, the point is, whether this kind of discussion also translates into a validation in field
studies and that is something, which we had just not, which we had not covered last time.
And i can share with you this example where, a large concrete power in a bridge, the
temperature was monitored in about a 96 meter high tower and the concrete was being
placed, temperatures sensors were placed at different points in the tower. And the
temperatures of concrete at those locations, was measured and also simulated using the
kind of studies that we talked about just now.

1197
(Refer Slide Time: 36:56)

(Refer Slide Time: 37:02)

What we needed was, the details about the materials being used, a proportions that are
used and all kind of modelling equations, as far as adiabatic temperature rise is
concerned, the heat convention coefficients, the flows and all that kind. We needed the
details for the materials that are being used in terms of the cement, coarse aggregate, fine
aggregate, chemical admixtures. We need at the proportions, in which they were mixed
and also, we needed to model the thermal conductivity, the specific heat and the density
of concrete.

1198
(Refer Slide Time: 37:45)

We needed to have an adiabatic temperature rise equation, which had to be created from
laboratory studies, we needed heat convection coefficients and the different constant.
And based on that, if we measure the temperatures, that are obtained in the inner wall or
the surface and so on, those temperatures are simply very close to the actual temperatures
that are monitored. So, it is not really just an exercise of mathematics that, we tried to
carry out and estimate the temperatures. But we must, but in order for that exercise to be
meaningful, those temperatures have to match, with the once actually monitored, not
only in laboratory studies but, also in the field and that is where, the real challenge for a
civil engineer lives.

1199
(Refer Slide Time: 38:31)

In this study was further continued where, the concrete in the site was cooled with water
using pipe cooling and there also the results were acceptably close. These picture shows
that, there is a limit to the extent, to which scientific models or mathematical models can
be relied upon to actually represent physical phenomenon, we do not still know enough
about a lot of physical phenomenon. And therefore, the models that, we use are
idealizations and that is something, which we must remember as far as concrete
engineering is concerned, in all aspects of the subject, whether it is mass concrete,
whether it is flowing concrete, whether it is the rheology, whether it is durability,
whether it is porosity and permeability and so on, and so forth.

1200
(Refer Slide Time: 39:32)

Now, let us spend some time on nondestructive testing of concrete, this subject is well
has been dealt with earlier, except there are that time, we had talked in terms of mostly
laboratory tests. Today the discussion will be largely focused on, better understanding
the permeability of concrete in situ that is, in an actual structure. As we have stated
several times for a concrete structure, if we have a concrete structure like this where, the
environment is on one side and the reinforcement is sitting here then, it is of great
significance for us, to understand and study the properties of the covered concrete.

And insitu measurements like the once that, we will talk about today are largely confined
to better understanding and measuring the properties, in situ of this cover concrete. Even
though, the word cover concrete is hardly used and we say it is concrete but, we must
remember, as far as a rigorous treatment is concerned, when we carry out a test in this
part of the concrete, this part of the concrete is not really the same as the main body
concrete.

It may be the same from the point of view of constitution, it may be the same from the
point of view of the fact that, the same concrete was brought in an agitator truck and
used to cast this member. But, as far as the placing conditions are concerned, the
concrete here, in the cover region has had to flow through the reinforcement and
therefore, there is reason to believe that the properties of this concrete could be different.

1201
Having said all that at the end of it, it is the cover concrete and the properties of the
cover concrete; that are very, very important as far as, durability studies are concerned.
And therefore, considerable effort as far as research is concerned, has been directed
towards understanding these properties.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:42)

Now, as far as insitu properties is concerned, there is a british stand out on the absorption
test, there is a figg’s air and permeability test and there is the ISAT that is, the initial
surface absorption test. Now, these three are only examples of, some of the test that have
emerged in the last about 20, 25 years, to help us evaluate the properties of surface
concrete.

1202
(Refer Slide Time: 42:11)

As far as BS absorption test is concerned, it is adopted as a durability quality control and

is specify to be carried at nature flexi 28 to 32 days. It involves taking the sample from
the structure, drying the specimen in an oven, cooling and then, immersing the specimen
in a pool of water, for certain length of time and measuring the amount of water, that are
absorbed by weight.

As i have stated several times in the course of this discussion, concrete engineering has
to be such or the practices in concrete engineering, have to be such that, the tests are
simple to carry out. They are robust and can be carried out with as little expertise as
possible, given the nature of the construction industry where, very often the people that
we are dealing with, may not be very sophisticated.

The level of education may be just marginal and that something, which code writers,
specification writers and so on, have to keep in mind, when we try to draw tests, write
down specifications for quality control and so on. So, if you look at this test for example,
it is an extremely simple test and says that, well a concrete which is more porous, will
observe more water that is it.

Now, the test has to be carried out understand at conditions and that is why, we need to
have specifications or the test method must clearly state, what is the size of the specimen
to be taken, what is the temperature at which it has to be conditioned and so on, what is

1203
the length of time over which it has to be soaked in water, what kind of readings have to
be taken and all that.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:59)

Another word or another test, which we see sometimes in literature is that called
sorptivity now, sorptivity measures the unsaturated flow of fluids into concrete and there
are papers and books, that deal with the subject. Determining sorptivity in the lab is
simple and requires only a scale, a stopwatch and a shallow pan of water. The sample is
preconditioned either by drying the sample for 7 days and about 50 degrees oven or by
drying for 4 days at 50 degree c and then, cooling it in a sealed container for 3 days.

Now, these numbers are all optional in the sense that, only if we are trying to carry out a
test under standard conditions, we need to follow this. If the test is being carried out for
research purposes or for making a qualitative assessment of one concrete versus another,
any of these conditions can obviously be relaxed. The size of the concrete sample are
sealed, typically with electricians tape and the sample is immersed to a depth of 5 to 10
millimeters in water.

The difference between the sorptivity test and the BS absorption test lies in this depth of
immersion in water. In the british absorption test, the entire specimen is immersed in
water whereas, in this case, it is immersed only to a 5 to 10 mm depth. So, basically,
what is done in this test is, we have a pan, we fill it with water and we immerse a
concrete specimen like this and this depth of immersion here. This is kept over 5 to 10

1204
millimeters and we try to see, how much water goes into this specimen through capillary
action.

So, the capillary action part is true even, in the british absorption test but, in this case, we
might have the situations where, there is more water rising into the specimen from the
sides than from the inside. So, these are some of the aspects that, we must be aware of,
when we are carrying out these tests and trying to use them as tools for quality control.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:13)

As far as the figg’s and modified figg’s operators concerned, this is another interesting
test where, at whole is drilled into the concrete and sealed at the top. And we want to
study the flow of air or water through pores of concrete, through the cylindrical surface
that is generated. The method really involves drawing drilling at 10 mm diameter in 40
mm deep hole and then, plugging it leaving a cylindrical test void of 10 mm by 20 mm.

So, basically, if we have a concrete surface, we make a hole, which is measuring 10 mm

in diameter and 40 mm in depth, out of which, we seal this part here. So that, this
cylindrical surface that is generated, that has a depth of 20 millimeters left for us.

1205
(Refer Slide Time: 47:08)

This here is a schematic representation of the test where, this is the total depth of the hole
and this is the depth that, we are talking about as far as the actual surface, through which
the permeation of air or water will occur. What we try to do is, to fill this portion with
water or pressurize it with air and we see, how easy it is for water or air to permeate
through this surface.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:51)

Now, in this test setup obviously, there are two things that can be measured, one is the
time that is, required for air or water to permeate through the concrete. And use that as an

1206
index of the quality of concrete under test or conversely, we could measure the change in
pressure over a fixed period of time and use that as an index.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:05)

So, this here, is the principle of the figg’s and the modified figg’s method for the
measurement or estimation of permeability of surface concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:14)

Now, coming to the last test that, we are talking about is that of ISAT or the initial
surface absorption test and in this case, we fix this plate on to the surface of the concrete,
connected to water reservoir. And we have a graduated glass capillary here and once, we

1207
open the tap here, we see how much water rises into this capillary tube. And that is a
measure of, how much water this concrete is absorbing and this measurements, helps us
evaluate the concrete that we are talking about.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:57)

So, as far as the method is concerned, it basically measures the rate of inflow of water
into concrete per unit area, in a stated time interval at a constant pressure head.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:07)

And the principle really is that, water when it comes in contact with dry concrete, it is
absorbed by capillary action and this rate of absorption decreases, as the concrete

1208
becomes more saturated. And mathematically speaking here in equation, which is of the
nature that is given here where, p is equal to a times t to the power of minus n where, p is
the initial surface absorption, t is the time from the start of the test, a is the constant and n
is the parameter, which has been found to vary between 0.3 and 0.7, for most concretes.
And once we do all this, we have a result, which is express in terms of milliliters per
square meter per second of water absorbed.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:46)

And when we are carrying out these tests, these are the steps that are involved in the
process.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:52)

1209
And finally, as far as comments on this test is concerned, we must ensure that the water
tight we must ensure that, the cap that we uses indeed, water tight. And the timing for the
test starts, when the water is allowed to flow into the cap and the test needs to be
continued for different periods of time, depending upon the movement, in divisions of
the capillary that, we are talking about.

So, in this case is well, we can talk in terms of quality, on the basis of the divisions, that
the water moves in the capillary tube in a given time or the time that it takes for the water
to move through a certain number of capillary divisions. So, depending on our
convenience, we can use one or both of these measures, for laboratory test, the best
results are obtained using oven dry specimens.

For insitu test, it is desirable, that the concrete has been dry for 48 hours and
modifications to the test suggested include applying some kind of vacuum drying on the
surface or using a water guard around the cap, at the same height to ensure uniaxial flow
of water into the concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 51:04)

Now, with this, we come to an end of the discussion today and we will quickly run
through some of the questions especially, for the mixing part, because that something,
which we have not talked about earlier. You could read about the different types of
mixers used in the laboratory and in plants, the ready mix concrete plants, which are used
for mixing concrete.

1210
We could make a list of standards relating to the mixers and the agitator trucks used in
concrete construction, as to what are the specifications that govern then, in the first place.
We could study literature, relating to the effect of adding a part of the designed water
that is what we were talking about in terms of what we talked of in terms of
supplementary addition of water at the site, whether its water or chemical admixtures
during transportation or at the site of placing, or we could study literature, which relates
the size another properties of the mixer to the property in the concrete that is obtained.

And one question for the mass concrete part, study the pipe cooling as a method for
controlling the temperature rise, in concrete construction especially, basically, mass
concrete construction.

Thank you.

1211
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 37
Considerations in repair of concrete structures (Part 1 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:22)

(( )) and welcome to one more lecture in the series on concrete engineering and
technology, where we are talking about subjects ranging from concrete fundamentals, to
proportioning of mixes, stages in concrete construction quality control, special concretes
mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement in structures and also maintenance of these
structures.

The subject that we will discuss today covers mostly the fundamentals of concrete design
from the point of view of maintenance of these structures. Another thing that will get
included in our discussion is deterioration of concrete and it is manifestation in concrete
structures, primarily by way of cracks.

So, getting started with our discussion today, which will largely focus on developing or
discussing the conceptual framework for the maintenance, and repair of concrete
structures. It has been realized that concrete structures are not maintenance free; concrete
is not a maintenance free material. It is not that we make the concrete structure once and

1212
then it continues to serve the purpose for which it was designed without any
maintenance, without any intervention during its service life.

So, now how do we address this issue of maintenance of concrete structures, and what is
the kind of intervention that we make during the service life of such structures; that
needs to be discussed in a conceptual framework rather than adhoc manner. We just
cannot do things adhoc. We see a concrete structure, see some signs of deterioration and
take some corrective action. This is the last thing that we would like to do, if we want to
be scientific in our approach; and that is the conceptual framework, that will be talking
about today.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:30)

Let us take an illustrative example as to how the design process really works. Here is the
stress strain curve of a linear material and as an input; the designer has the failure values
here. The failure stress and the corresponding failure strain. Now what we really do is an
appropriate factor is used to obtain an allowable design stress with a corresponding
design strain.

1213
(Refer Slide Time: 03:25)

So, if the this failure stress here, we reduce this failure stress and say that this is the
permissible design stress and for this permissible design stress, if we know the stress
strain behaviour of the material. We have the design strain or the corresponding design
strain. It is entirely possible that instead of a failure stress being given directly. We
decide that we do not want the material to deform more than a certain amount; that is we
give a maximum permissible strain, and from there we determine the permissible load or
the stress value.

(Refer Slide Time: 03:46)

1214
Now, let us extend our discussion to include the concept of design versus analysis.
Consider a rectangular block of area A of a material whose modulus of elasticity is E
under the action of load P. So, what we are talking about that the load P acts on this
block of material which has an area of cross section A that the material property is E the
modulus of elasticity of this material is E.

Now, preliminary analysis tells us now, what is analysis? Analysis tells us that the
compressive stress is P by A and the corresponding strain is sigma by E, so as far as the
strain is concerned. We could write the strain as either sigma by E, which is written here
or we can also write it as P upon a times E that is what our classical understanding of
stress strain behavior; how the material deforms and what is the expected level of
deformation and so on is.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:08)

Now, what is the design? Correspondingly the design means, whether these values that is
sigma that we get here or the epsilon or the strain that we get here, these are acceptable
or not; in other words the designer needs to ensure that the stress does not exceed sigma
d which is what we have determined earlier and the strain does not exceed epsilon d.
How does it done?

This can be accomplished by appropriately choosing the area A and the material, that is
the E. So, basically analysis is exercise, which tells us the response of the structure to a
given load, when the material properties in the geometry of the member is known and

1215
design is the exercise, where the geometry and the material properties of the member are
determined for the same load with the provision or with this specifications that the
response is acceptable. Surely there will be response surely there will be some
deformation.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:20)

Now, whether the deformation or that response is within acceptable limits that is what is
the design exercise, on another note, how do we arrive at a design load? This we get
from studying the different types of load that the structure is likely to be subjected too.
We have dead load, live loads, earthquake loads, wind loads, snow loads and so on and
so forth; depending upon, where the structure is located; what is the past history of
events in that region; what is the load that the structure is lightly to be subjected too and
so on.

We also study the frequency of occurrence of the different loads. How frequently do
earthquakes occur in a particular region? How frequently does it snow? How heavily
does it snow and so on, and then using a judiciously chosen load combination and load
factors. What we do is? Combine different loads, dead loads and live loads and
earthquake loads could be one combination. Dead loads, wind loads, live loads it is
another combination.

We may make an engineering decision that certain load combinations will not be
accounted for, at the end of it, design is also an exercise in economics. We need the

1216
structure, which is economic that is also married to the concept of importance of the
structure. The impact that is failure has, if a structure is a high impact structure may be a
nuclear power plant or a very critical bridge. We might like that structure to withstand
even those forces which are likely to occur very very infrequently whereas, if it is a
structure which is not critical, we may design for a lower level of loads or a different
load combination.

Now, if we look at structural design purely as an exercise in economics. You have to

make sure that the supply; that is the capacity of the structure exceeds the demand on the
structure by a certain margin. What is a capacity of a structure or a structural member? It
is the capacity or the load carrying capacity, if you want to talk in terms of structural
design.

It is a load carrying capacity of that member and that depends on the geometry and the
material properties. What is the demand on the structure? The demand on the structure is
the load that acts on it; as we have discussed just before several loads or different loads
would activation on it and as a designer, we come to a certain design load and for that
design load we need to make sure that the structure has enough capacity.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:24)

Now, this concept of enough capacity basically, means that the capacity that is a supply
should exceed the demand by a certain margin. Going back to this example, that we had
of a rectangular block with area A modulus of elasticity E and the permissible stresses

1217
and strains be sigma d and epsilon d. The capacity of the section C, can be written as the
minimum of sigma d times A epsilon times E times A. So, the lesson of the two governs
the capacity.

So know, how the capacity is? The demand in the structure or the demand D on the
section is the external force P which acts on it and that is the example that we had talked
about earlier that there is the load P acting on it. This area is A the modulus of elasticity
of this material is E and the demand D is therefore, a load that acts on the member and
the designer needs to ensure that C is greater than D or the ratio C by D satisfies some
criteria that we lay down. The capacity should be of factor gamma times the demand and
this gamma should be greater than 1.

So, basically we have to ensure that the capacity may be 1.1 times gamma that is 10
percent more than 1.1 times D that is 10 percent more than the demand or 20 times more
than the demand and so on; depending on various things such as the importance of the
structure and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:56)

So, let us consider another example. Here is an example of a simply supported beam
measuring d by d, that is the cross section of the beam and it has a uniformly distributed
load over this span L. Assuming that the modulus of elasticity of the beam is E. The
analysis means that from the flexural behaviour of the beams. We determine the tensile,
compressive, shear stresses and strains in the different parts of the beam. We know that

1218
we can draw the bending moment diagram for a beam under different loading conditions,
and this is the simplest of them and from those bending moment diagrams, we can get
the stresses and strains in the different parts of the beam. We can get them in the bottom
fiber, we can get them at the top fiber, we can get them in the center of the beam a
certain distance away from the beam. We can talk about what is the stresses near the
support and soon and so forth that is the analysis.

We can talk in terms of deflection of the beam, we know that a beam, which is subjected
to certain loads deforms and this deflection is something which we can calculate from
our understanding a flexural behavior of beams. Now, what is the design? The design
exercise really means, whether the stresses strains and our deflections are acceptable. We
have specifications, which tell us that the deflection of a simply supported beam, which
is maximum let us say the mid span should not exceed L by 325 or l by 450 and so on.

Where those numbers come form is a different story, but it is important to understand
that the designer needs to satisfy the criteria that are laid down in the design
specifications. We must also remember that the design specifications are not time
independent; they are time dependent that is the specifications change over a period of
time. A code published today, may permit a certain amount of deflection and that gets
revised when the code is published 10 years later and these things the designer
understands and the problem arises for structures which were built for a different set of
specifications.

1219
(Refer Slide Time: 13:33)

Now, what is the relevance of this very simple discussion from the point of view of
maintenance of structures? When do we really need to repair, rehabilitate, retrofit or
strengthen a structure? What is the difference between these terms that is the term such
as repair, rehabilitate, retrofit, strengthen, reinforce and so on. We often hear these terms,
and now what is the real difference between these terms and whether they are simply
synonymous.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:12)

1220
Now, in order to understand that, and now getting started with the framework, now
beginning to answer these questions, what is the importance of understanding these
simple concepts from the point of view of maintenance of concrete structures? Let us
look at this graph, this graph really shows the variation of deterioration with time and
this red line here is the line that shows deterioration time dependence.

Similarly, the green line here shows the performance versus time. So, we see that as the
structure is in service for longer and longer periods of time. The deterioration tends to
increase and at the same time the performance tends to reduce the structure becomes less
and less performing. Now, this dotted line here shows the minimum acceptable level of
performance similarly, this dotted line here, shows the maximum acceptable level of
deterioration in a structure. Now given the fact that over a period of time the
performance deteriorates, initially we have to have the performance which is slightly
higher than the minimum acceptable level.

Now, from this graph, what do we surmise or can we make a comment on the service life
of the structure well as far as a deterioration is concerned, this line here or this time span
here is the time span that the structure is the strength serviceable from the point of view
of deterioration levels. It is only a this point that the level of deterioration in the structure
is exceeding the critical level that is the maximum acceptable deterioration level.

Whereas from a performance point of view that times reach somewhere here, beyond this
point the structure is not serviceable from the point of view of performance, because at
this point the performance has fallen below the minimum acceptable level and therefore,
the service life of the structure will be lesser of these two times and that is this time, so
this time becomes our service life.

So, if somehow we knew, how are the deterioration changes over time or how the
performance changes over time to begin with then we would try to ensure that during the
service life of the structure the performance does not go below the minimum acceptable
level or the deterioration does not exceed the maximum acceptable level.

Now, this is the concept which is very important from the point of view of maintenance.
We have to understand that maintenance really means action that is taken while the
structure is in operation to better understand, to present status as far as the deterioration

1221
as far as the performance is concerned, and then we try to intervene and try to alter the
nature of the deterioration time or the performance time graphs.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:13)

Now, if we continue with this discussion, here is the framework for maintenance of
concrete structures, we start that is at the start, we have the structure has been built and
put into service, so we have a initial inspection to determine, whether the structure has
been built as per drawings as per the as per the specifications, whether there are any
blemishes in the structure to begin with and so on.

After certain point in time, we have periodic inspection which could be visual, which
could have certain simple tools been used and so on. From this inspection, we need to
carry out an evaluation. Evaluation is a judgment that an engineer or a user exercises
based on the input data that he has from the periodic inspection.

The decision could be to go for a detailed inspection or it could be to simply reinforce

the structure or take some action as far as detailed inspection is concerned, the detailed
inspection could include nondestructive testing, core sampling and so on, and gain an
evaluation needs to be made; in terms of what is the action that is required to be taken, it
could be repair, it could be reinforcement and so on and so forth.

Once we decide to repair, we need to be carry out the repair and the chapter closes, till
such time as we go back to the start, because the repaired structure or for that matter the

1222
reinforced structure is as good as a new structure in a certain sense, we need to start with
an initial inspection as to carry out. So, as to understand whether the repair work or the
reinforcement work has been carried out with diligence as far as specifications, and we
have achieved whatever we wanted to achieve and if that has been done, once again the
process starts and we have periodic inspection detailed inspection and so on.

Now, in this pat here, we need to understand issues related to the causes and degree of
deterioration which means we must have an understanding of the deterioration
mechanisms that are operating, it could could it could be corrosion of reinforcement it
could be alkali aggregate reaction it could be fatigue and so on and so forth.

So, this part here in order to be able to carry out periodic and derailed inspections, we
must understand the mechanisms of deterioration and also the relevant nondestructive
testing tools, and the limitations of the data that is available to us at the end of the testing
as far as the repair and reinforcement of structures is concerned, we need to carry out a
survey and find out what is the best method that we can use, what is the most appropriate
material that can be used, what kind of equipment that need to be used and so on

Having said that we must remember that evaluation is a very very important step at the
end of each if these processes that we have underlined here there is an evaluation step at
the end of the periodic inspection, there is in evaluation at the end of the detailed
inspection and so on. So, evaluation is basically the process of exercising once judgment
in terms of what is the further action required, all test methods give us certain results and
it requires judgment to decide, what is the next step that is to be taken.

1223
(Refer Slide Time: 22:26)

Now, if you look at more rigorous definition of some of these terms the inspection could
be defined as a generic term for actions taking to understand the current state of a
structure, those actions could be simply visually inspecting the structure or carrying out a
Schmidt hammer test, an ultrasonic pulse velocity test, it could be carrying out a load
test, it could be carrying out a infrared thermal energy.

Repair is a term which could be used for maintenance measures to restore or improve the
durability of a structure in reduced hazards to third party. Now this third party hazard is
something very very important that the owner of a civil engineering infrastructure project
or a concrete infrastructure project must keep in mind, if we have a concrete bridge
which has certain cracks and due to some reason, loads are otherwise a chunk of concrete
was to fall and hurt a passerby. Now that is something which is very very serious and we
must take all measures as part of our maintenance strategy for that particular structure to
ensure that that simply does not ever happen.

Strengthening in contrast is a maintenance measure to restore or improve the structural

performance such as the load carrying capacity and all the stiffness of a structure and so
on. Serviceability restoration, functionality improvement appearance improvement and
so on are also measures that are taken as part of the maintenance strategy for a given
structure.

1224
We must remember that concrete structures not only have the function of carrying load
but, also have an esthetic function that is the concrete structure should be pleasing to the
eye excessive cracks discoloration appearance of rust strains and so on is something
which is esthetically unappealing, and maintenance actually will be required to restore
esthetics appearance improvement.

Now, these definitions have been taken from the standard specifications for concrete
structures of 2001 to maintenance part of the Japan society of civil engineers. Now this
document is perhaps affords of its kind argument which lays down, the basic framework
for maintenance of concrete structure.

From the point of view of a professional institution document different users the railways
the roadways they have their own manuals and standards for maintenance. Now this
document tries to provide a guidance or a framework for developing such documents
across the globe or across the table for all kinds of concrete structures.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:47)

1225
(Refer Slide Time: 26:03)

Now, if we look at this graph once again, that is the deterioration and performance
changes over time, the minimum acceptable level of performance and the maximum
acceptable level of deterioration. We try to understand the concept of repair from this
graph, when we repair a structure at this point that is when we realized that the structure
needs corrective action, if we do not take corrective action, we do not have much time
left before the maximum permissible level of deterioration is reached. We take corrective
action here and that is a repair action and what this repair action does is just change the
slope of this deterioration time graph which was heading this way it changes it into this
line here and we have been able to extent the service life of the structure by this time.

So, this is the philosophical or the conceptual implication of a repair action will all this
sounds very simply but, on the field it is not easy to implement, for the simple reason
that How do we classify deterioration? How do we quantify deterioration? What is the
parameter that we will follow as part of the initial inspection, periodic inspection, the
detailed inspections and so on to say that well the structure has deteriorated from this
point to this point and from this point to another and so on, and that is why it is a
conceptual framework it is not an engineering framework.

An engineering framework would mean that upon the structure that we are talking about
whether it is a marine structure, whether it is a structure in the cold climate, we define

1226
appropriate deterioration parameters and we try to follow those parameters, we measure
them periodically and find out how they are changing.

Not only that we also need to find out what is the maximum acceptable level of that
particular parameter that will call for corrective action or before that value is reached the
structure should be repaired. It is much like the action that adopted takes when we go to
him saying that we are not feeling well based on certain tests, the doctor decides whether
a certain medicine is required what will be the dosage and so on

So, that decision is based on certain parameters which are measurable and the
interpretation of those parameters is what the doctor carries out and that is the evaluation
process. Those parameters can be monitored periodically and that is what we mean when
we say that a structure should be inspected periodically, and if required a detailed
inspection should be carried out and then we need to intervene by way of a repair action
or a reinforcement action. So, what repair does is not necessarily increases the strength
but, increases the durability that is the time that the structure would take or the time
taken before the critical level of deterioration reached by slowing down the rate of
deterioration.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:27)

Now, what is the reinforcement action? Reinforcement action means increasing the level
of performance to a level which could be higher than the originally envisaged level and
of course, the durability of the structure also increases. Now this is explained here that if

1227
we decide to take reinforcement action at this point in time, because of our action the
performance level has increased and not only it has increased may be the slope it which
it was deteriorating has also been rectified.

So, what we get is an additional time which is involved here that becomes the
improvement in terms of the durability or in an extension of the likely service life of the
structure. Now this discussion on levels higher than originally envisaged and so on, arise
from different reasons. Now what are the causes for repair and or reinforcement action?

(Refer Slide Time: 30:26)

So, if we go back to our example that we had of a simply supported beam with the u d l
why would we need to repair or reinforce this simple beam, one could be an increase in
the load level, it is not very uncommon in civil engineering structures which are in
service for several tends of years that the load level increases.

This load level could be in terms of the load itself for example, the excel load for trucks
or for wagons in train increases and that happens, because of an improvement in the in
the automobile or the wagon sector, it is a mechanical engineering development. What
happens is that now, we have trucks available which can carry more load or it could
happen in terms of frequency of application in a certain section a railway line, only one
good strains of were passed in a day but, because of development increase in population
and so on and so forth, the frequency of load application is much higher at the end of it.
It is an increase in the load level. So, if the load level increases, the demand have

1228
increased from the discussion that we had earlier trying to relate the concept of structural
design to the concept of economics in terms of demand and supply.

What has happened in this case is the demand has increased. We expect the structure to
be able to perform under higher loads. It could also happened at the load carrying
capacity of the structure has gone down, there is a decrease in the load carrying capacity
and what does this mean, this means a change in the E, if we go back to our previous
example, it could mean a change in the A part of the structure, part of that member has
deteriorated weathered away corroded and so on and so forth.

Change in E means the material has undergone certain changes, because of which it has
become less stiff, it deforms more under a certain action of load and so on and so forth or
there could also be a change in the acceptable response. There could be a more stringent
deflection criteria and that really says that we have changed the acceptable performance
level, may be the load level remains the same , may be the material is the same but, if we
change the maximum permissible deflection we all know that the beam has to be now
differently designed.

So, for all these reasons or a combination of these reasons beams, columns and any other
structural member from concrete needs repair or reinforcement during its service life.
What the another thing I would like to mention here is that when we are now talking
about repair and reinforcement in this context. It is very clear that it is not simply a
matter of patching up, it is not something like saying that we see some deterioration and
do some action. So, that the manifestation or the visible sign of the deterioration is
somehow taken care of.

It is like saying that we brush it under the carpet; we cannot and should not brush away
signs of distress and deterioration in concrete structures under the carpet. It is nothing
wrong concrete deteriorates and we need to take structural action. The designer has to be
involved at each stage and decide what kind of action needs to be taken. The material
engineer needs to be involved at all stages during the maintenance operation to decide
what kind of material is being used, what kind of tests are been carried out for the
material that is being used and so on.

1229
(Refer Slide Time: 34:56)

Now, new structures can always be designed with new specifications but, there is always
the question of what to do with existing structures that were designed with an earlier
specification. A structure which was designed with the certain specification may
continue to perform as design but, due to changes in specification that response or that
performance becomes unacceptable.

Now, whereas, the new structures can be designed to take care of that what do we do
with the existing structures and that is a major challenge for all engineers, because, they
are charged with because, they are charged with the responsibility of not only creating
new structures or new infrastructure but, also maintaining the existing one.

1230
(Refer Slide Time: 36:02)

Now, depending upon the and for that depending upon factors such as the availability of
funds and the importance of the structures of an action is initiated in a phased manner for
these structures. Now let us talk about some of the considerations that we have in mind
when we carry out the repair of concrete, when we carry out the repair of concrete
structures, we need to understand what is the type of repair being used, what are the
problems associated with repair of these structures, we need to have tools available to be
able to compare repair methods, we need to understand the deterioration after repair.
There would be a method which would give us immediate relief but, not be very durable
and of course, finally, we need to be bothered about the cost involved.

1231
(Refer Slide Time: 36:43)

As far as selection of repair methods is concerned, we need to select the suitable method
considering the cause and degree of deterioration, and then plan and design the repair
process. The repair method needs to be very carefully chosen to address the cost unless
we understand the cost and choose the repair method accordingly the repair method is
likely to fail, and that is why we must understand the cause of deterioration mechanism
of deterioration that has operated on that structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:16)

1232
Continuing with this discussion we need to also figure out the effectiveness of repair and
deterioration after the repair. We need to answer questions such as at what stage it should
be done, to what extent it should be done and how the deterioration curve changes, that is
the deterioration rate post repair that will really give us, how much additional service life
we are able to add to that structure.

In this context there could be two questions, one is given up method of repair how much
is the service life that it adds the question could be turned around and said that well the
user wants an extension of service life by say 10 years or 20 years, what should be the
repair method that is adopted at this point in time.

If we look at the deterioration time graph for a particular structure here, an option could
be if e are intervening at this point in time that we take a repair method A such that we
are able to extent the service life by this amount. There could be another option B which
is less effective but, requires periodic intervention and that decision whether one should
go with A or B is basic or could be governed by cost and economic considerations.

(Refer Slide Time: 39:13)

Now, as far as the methods of repair are concerned most methods, consists of
impregnation of resins into cracks and coatings of surfaces as far as concrete is
concerned most deterioration manifest in the form of appearance of cracks of some
nature or the other and therefore, the and therefore, repair action is basically
impregnation of resins into these cracks, and then applying coatings on the surface.

1233
These coatings are applied because of several reasons one of them being that we do
impregnation of cracks, the structure starts to look aesthetically very unappealing and of
course, the economics depends very closely to the material and the repair method, and
the effectiveness of repair changes according to environmental conditions, a particular
repair method that works very well in dry climates may not work at all, if the climate
was wet and therefore, we need to establish certain concepts in repaired design.

What is the kind of repair material to be chosen? What is the method that you should be
used? How should it be tested and so on? These are concepts that we need to build into a
area of repaired design. Repair cannot be done adhoc on the filled with very little
knowledge on the part of engineer and simply based on the literature, which are repaired
material manufacturer supplies.

(Refer Slide Time: 40:49)

If we talk about repair of crack portions in general, if the depth of cracks is large and is
harmful from the point of view of corrosion and so on. We may choose both costing and
impregnation and if the deterioration is not so severe, it just cracks on the surface not
very deep, we may choose to apply only the coatings on the surface but, these two
coatings now need to be different qualitatively as we shall see.

1234
(Refer Slide Time: 41:17)

In the case of coatings being applied without impregnation of resins into cracks, the
coating must possess enough plasticity or enough deformability. We must also remember
the coatings may form cracks in the coating due to deterioration of the coating or fatigue
load and so on. When we are carrying out a impregnation of cracks and application of
coatings, We must also keep in mind the possibility that the impregnation of resins into
the cracks is not complete and parts of the cracks are still left out, resin does not reach
the crack fully.

Now, why does that happen it could happen, because of the fineness of the crack,
because of the fact that the resin does not chosen carefully enough, the method that was
applied to try to push the resin to the cracks was not appropriate, the quality control at
the time of repair was not adequate and so on, and all these things effect the post repair
performance of that structure.

1235
(Refer Slide Time: 42:49)

(Refer Slide Time: 43:16)

As far as corrosion related repairs is concerned and corrosion is indeed one of the most
important and frequently seen mechanisms of deterioration and concrete structures, if the
repair is not proper, we would always see corrosion occurring once again even after the
repair works. So, if you look at some of the schematic representations of the kind of
discussion that we had, we will have a crack which is formed here and this is a complete
impregnation of the crack with the resin and find the application of a surface coating
which could be resins resins reinforced with fiber and so on. In the case when we are not
trying to do impregnation of cracks, we said that in certain cases when the cracks are not

1236
very deep, we may not like to do impregnation specifically and only just do the surface
coating.

Now, if you do only the surface coating what we shall remember is what is happening
here, because of this width of the crack, this coating must have enough deformability to
remain as a intact cover over the crack, and prevent material from going inside and that
is what it designed for even when the structure is under load. So, these cracks have the
tendency to grow and as they grow it is likely that this coating will fail and if the coating
fails then the whole idea of repairing the structure is defeated and that is what we are
addressing when we are talking about post repair performance of the structure the
deterioration rates after the repaired process.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:27)

Now, this here is a representation of treatment of corroded and cracked portions in a

concrete structure, corrosion being a most common cancer as far as concrete structures is
concerned, if this is the portion of reinforcement which shows corrosion in the
neighborhood of a crack what we would like to do is to eliminate portions contaminated
with chlorides or portions which are carbonated and then replace the material there with
something else as shown in this section.

1237
(Refer Slide Time: 45:23)

Instead of just trying to impregnate the cracks let the corrosion be, where it is and
applying a surface coating, we are not going to get any benefit because the corrosion,
root cause of corrosion is still is not addressed, what we really need to do? We need to
remove all the contaminated portion around the crack, open the structure applying
inhibitor on the reinforcing bars. So, that the corrosion can be effectively controlled and
then try to replace the section with polymer cement mortar or any other material apply a
surface treatment try to close this gap between the new material and the old material with
the certain suitable material and then, and only then we can be show that the post repair
performance of the structure will be good.

1238
(Refer Slide Time: 46:23)

As far as application of resins on the surface is concerned, we must remember that the
resins could be susceptible to ultra violet rays and therefore, we must keep in mind their
deterioration over a period of time , when they are subjected to sunlight this has another
example of a bad replacement versus a good replacement.

(Refer Slide Time: 47:05)

Where in this case the corroded reinforcement has not been fully exposed and no matter
much polymer cement mortar, any other replace or any other repair material is placed
here. It is unlikely that the structure is going to perform as required or as expected. It will

1239
happen only if all around this reinforcing bar, all around the corroded portion of the
reinforcing bar concrete has been taken out and replaced with polymer cement mortar or
the repair material of choice when it comes to problems as far as repair is concerned, we
need to evaluate the repair material and the method.

Expensive materials does not necessarily mean that it is durable in all environments.
Periodic repair of coatings is needed due to the deterioration that may be caused by a
ultra violet rays. Corroded reinforcement steel bars may cause macro cell corrosions and
education and training of professionals for inspection and evaluation is something which
is very very important, and part of the objective of this discussion that we have had in
this module of lectures has been to create an awareness among concrete engineers
towards issues such as this that we must understand mechanism, we must understand
mechanisms of material deterioration, How they are evaluated? How they are monitored
what kind of repair should be used, whether the repair is going to be effective and so on?

(Refer Slide Time: 48:08)

1240
(Refer Slide Time: 48:29)

I must acknowledge the material that I have used today is based on the publications of
the j s c e and I have the permission to use material from the thesis and research from
professor Uomoto of the public works department and formally they professor at the
university of Tokyo and before, we close we will have some homework, we could study
the repair materials available for concrete structures that is something which we are not
going to do in this discussion, we could try to classify some of the maintenance work that
you see around during concrete structures into repair or reinforcement in the framework
that we have discussed today, whether you feel that that particular maintenance action
will be only in terms of delaying the deterioration process or slowing down the
deterioration process or whether it has any structural merit.

Technical literature with repair material also defines the method of applications, we
could study these details to better understand the framework defined in terms of a
combination of the material and the method, study the details in the literature from the
point of view about post repair deterioration rates, and the durability of the repair
material itself to better understand the framework defined.So, we have tried to put
together today a conceptual framework ,we address repair and reinforcement of concrete
structures within the framework of different iteration processes, and identifying or
relating the maintenance operations to these processes and with this we come to a close
for the discussion today.

1241
Thank you.

1242
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 38
Considerations in repair of concrete structures (Part 2 of 2)

(Refer Slide Time: 00:21)

[FL] and welcome back to this module of lectures on concrete engineering and
technology. We are trying to revise fundamentals of concrete, proportioning of mixes,
stages and concrete construction, issues in quality control, talk about special concretes,
some mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement and concrete structures and
maintenance of concrete structures.

1243
(Refer Slide Time: 00:37)

In the last discussion, we were talking about a subject expanse, fundamentals of concrete
design in fact the principles of all structural design is matter of at mechanisms of
deterioration in concrete and maintenance of structures.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:56)

What we were talking about was a conceptual framework for maintenance and repair of
concrete structures.

1244
(Refer Slide Time: 01:03)

So, recapitulate what we were trying to do, we had studied or looked at deterioration and
performance and how they change overtime. So, this here is the variation of deterioration
as gradually the structure is in service for along there long in time it deteriorates.

Corresponding to that deterioration the line here shows a change in the performance,
initially the structure forms very well and as the structure ages, the performance tends to
reduce or degrade taking this changes in mind this green line here is the minimum
acceptable level of performance, and this red line here is the maximum acceptable level
of deterioration, and depending on how we want to define the concept of service life we
can say that the service life is reached once, either the deterioration exceeds the
maximum permissible limit or the performance falls below a critical minimum
acceptable level.

1245
(Refer Slide Time: 02:49)

Now, how do we define these levels and what quantitative parameters that is left to us,
we could choose parameters such as deflection for performance, we could choose
cracking for deterioration chloride penetration for deterioration and so on. And so forth
so as a concept this is what we are talked about when we talked about in service
maintenance of concrete structures. Extending this concept for the we discussed the issue
of inspection which involves determination of the actual state of the structure from the
point of view of either deterioration or performance.

So, once the structure is put in service or just before it is put in service there is an initial
inspection followed by periodic inspections, and at the end of which we need to carry out
an evaluation process, and the side what we want to do, either reinforce this structure or
at the end of any stage, we can decide to repair the structure this could be followed by a
detailed inspection, which again could lead to a repair or a reinforcement and at the end
of the cycle once we if carried out repair or rehabilitation.

We really go back to an initially inspection and see whether, the work that has been
carried out is satisfactory, and what is the step or what is the state from which the
structure is starting a fresh. While we are talking about this we also talked about the need
to understand deterioration and its causes, when we carrying out inspections and they
importance of selecting repair and reinforcement measures, when we are carrying out
repair and reinforcement.

1246
(Refer Slide Time: 04:33)

And of course, the issue of evaluation which is really adjustment or decision making
processes which is involved at different stages two help us determined the next step,
have carrying this forward we try to define the concept of repair in terms of a
maintenance action which may not increase or improve the existing state of the structure
but, increase the service life that available to a by reducing the rate of deterioration that
is occurring at that point in time.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:11)

1247
So, if we are intervening a this point in the structure we have increase the service life by
reducing the rate of deterioration or rate of further deterioration. Similarly, as far as
reinforcement is concerned if we are intervening at this point and time we may actually
improve the performance that point and time and how this graph that is the post
reinforcement change in the performance goes would depend on the nature and the
efficiency of the reinforcement work. So, we have increased the service life from this
point to this point because of reinforcement action.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:45)

So, this what we are talked about last time, we are discussed is some detail the causes for
repair in reinforcement action considering a simply supported being like this one of them
could be increasing the load level which in civil engineering structures could arise out of
changes in the axle load in the frequency of loads and so on.

1248
(Refer Slide Time: 06:32)

It could be in the decrease the load carrying capacity of the member or the structure
which is how the deterioration in properties of the material manifests itself, and there
could be changes in the acceptable response or the change in the design criteria
acceptable deflection for example, changes in the load factors and so on.

We are talks about some problems in repair, we are talked about a bad repair in which
case we had seen that the repair material for example, polymer cement mortar is placed
in s structural like this without removing all the concrete from behind the deteriorated
reinforcement bar, which is what this done here as good replacement and a replacement
of this nature or repair action of this nature does not necessarily mean that the a structure
will not corrode in the future. So, corrosion or such problem could manifest itself very
quickly after the repair work has been carried out, if the work is not done properly.

1249
(Refer Slide Time: 07:15)

We are talked about the need to evaluate repair material and the method it is not
necessarily that expansive materials are always more durable. We are talked about
periodic repair of coatings because those coatings could be deteriorated or could lose
their effectiveness on account of deterioration by exposure to ultra violet rays in cases of
corrosion.

We have to be careful about macro cell corrosion being initiated, and we have talked
about macro cell corrosion going to talking about deterioration in concrete structures on
account of reinforcement corrosion, and the need for education and training of
professional for inspection and evaluation of concrete structures, which is a professional
job just cannot be done on in [adobe] manner.

1250
(Refer Slide Time: 08:01)

So, now coming to what we will talk about today, we will really focus on some of the
common methods of repair and reinforcement and we will quickly run through some
results from a laboratory study on repair methods in their efficiency.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:15)

Now, coming to some of the common methods of repair and rehabitation, the discussion
here is more in terms of introducing the repair methods rather than going into the details
of each of these methods, and I would like the listeners and students who are interested
in this subject to actually go through the net and some of the variable literature.

1251
Which describes each of these process is in much greater detail and that perhaps not
required, when we are talking about the general principles of repair in reinforcement of
concrete structures that two within a framework of operational maintenance and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 09:02)

Now, coming to the first such method that we talk about is the try pack and epoxy
bonded dry pack. Now, what is done here is that we have a situation here or a portion of
the structure here which needs to be repair so what we put in place is a restraining
formwork and we try to pack the repair material in layers.

So, we put this layer first followed by another layer after that and so on, and this
compaction is carried out using a hammer so that is the manual method for placing
compacting and ensuring that this part of concrete, which had been removed or which
had to be removed on account of some reason is now replaced by another material.

Now this material could consist of a cement sand mix which is basically cement mortar.
We just enough mortar, so it is basically a very dry mix because the compaction that we
are doing is with the hammer and that we can obviously do only if the mixes dry and as
we said the repair material is placed in thin layers, and compacted with the hammer
instead of a cement based binder. We could also use a epoxy based binder in which case
what we would call this method is epoxy bonded dry pack and the method is obviously
suitable only for small areas, and susceptible to changes in the quality of the work done

1252
depending on the work man involved because all the operation is are is strictly manual
the mixing perhaps the compaction is completely manual and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:50)

Coming to the next method, we have preplaced aggregate concrete. Now, this is another
method where of formwork first as shown here pack this space with gap gridded course
aggregate compact the aggregates and finally, inject cement grout through pipes or tubes
which are going to the right to the bottom and gradually with draw the pipes as the grout
rises in the pre placed aggregate.

The advantage of this method compare to using simply concrete to begin with would be
that we do not really need to compact the concrete it can be done in sections where
concrete cannot be placed and compacted.

So, we can use course aggregate fill that space with course aggregate and add the grout
later on there are basic differences between pre placed aggregate concrete and normal
concrete. The way pre placed aggregate concrete has been done as you know would
involve aggregate to aggregate contact which is not necessarily true when we are talking
about normal concrete construction.

Similarly, the tradition of aggregates that is used should be such that it facility its or
allows the movement of cement graphs, we need to engineer the properties or determine
the properties of the grout that will be suitable for a particular application depending

1253
upon the maximum particle size and the particle size distribution which would
essentially control the void geometry of the compacted cores aggregates.

So, grout is force into voids of clean graded course aggregate densely pre packed in form
work it consists of cement sand pozzolona and supper plasticizer course aggregate
should be a washed to remove all fines and deterious materials and grouting begins at the
bottom of pre placed aggregate. Obviously, we cannot start the placing and grout at the
top and hope that the grout will simply flow down its better to start from the bottom and
then go up gradually.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:20)

These are some more pictures from preplaced aggregate concreting operation. The first
step is to fix the formwork, and they did aggregate washed free of fines bonding
materials placed in the cavity. We could use reinforcement here if you want followed by
form of fitted with pipes and nipples and valves for placement of the grout.

So, all these paraphernalia is added with this system, we can close the system
completely which we cannot do when we are trying to place concrete in the cavity like
this is step three, would be flow able grout is mixed and pumped into the cavity formed
feeling space between the aggregate. So of course, we have to have a vent through which
the air is allowed to escape and finally, the form the removed and the surface is finished.

1254
So, much for the pre placed aggregate concrete operation we can imagine that an actual
placement of pre placed aggregate concrete would be a lot more complicated, and the
quality control even more so because we need to understand the void geometry, we are
need to understand the void configuration for a given mix of aggregates and we need to
choose and appropriate grout from the point of view of viscosity this aggregation
bleeding strength and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 14:50)

Continuing our discussion with methods of with pair shotcrete is another candidate and
we have talked about it earlier, when we are talking about special concrete were could be
wet concrete mixes wet mix shotcrete and dry mix shotcrete in the dry mix shotcrete the
water is added just before the material is shotcreted on to the surface.

And, the method is called also guniting or pneumatically applied concrete or mortar as it
involves deposition of material in layers, under pressure without supporting formwork,
and this part limits its applications. Of course, is a require material as a repair method is
a very powerful method because material can be deposited in layers.

It can be done by the dry or the wet mix process and the method is particularly useful for
restoring spalled surfaces if we have a surface we are the concrete is really fall enough
then shotcrete and organiting or placing concrete under pressure is a very viable
alternative this is quite different from having to place the concrete manually in that area.

1255
(Refer Slide Time: 16:08)

Now, let us talk about another method which is quite different and that is played
bonding, now this consist of connecting mile steel plates to concrete surfaces
mechanically by bolting or glowing with the epoxy as we can see here in this picture
fixing a plates on the concrete surface would enhance the flexure strength and the plates
can be held imposition by either bolting them to the concrete or fixing them using an
epoxy.

So, what primarily is being done is that we have what we have in this method is that if
we have a concrete beam which has deteriorated, what we want to fix is mile steel plate
here and then if you apply load on this beam this plate takes all the tension. So, this
increases the load carrying capacity of the repaired beam now what has to be ensured in
this process is that this plate is properly held into position either by glowing at the
concrete surface or by appropriately encoring the plate into existing concrete and that is
what is mean by saying bolting or glowing with epoxy and we have a steel plate which
has been placed here for the tensile face we can place these plates even on the shear faces
and so on.

This is an in expansive versatile in advanced technique for rehabilitation except that we

should know how to design this method we should know what is the kind of plate to be
used what is the size of the plate what is the size of the bolls or what is the kind of epoxy
or glue which is to be used at the surface in order to ensure monolithic structural action

1256
but, it can substantial increased strength is stiffness and ductility of the repaired
structure, we could even use l plates if we want to use in a beam or column.

(Refer Slide Time: 18:46)

Now, let us talk about jacketing jacketing really means in existing concrete around which
fresh concrete is flexed. So, that is a concrete jacket we call it RCC jacket means
reinforce cement concrete jacket is placed around in concrete, which could have
deteriorated in which case it could be a repair action without an intension to increase the
load carrying capacity or the performance of that column or the structural remember or it
could even be a reinforcement step where we want to actually increase the cross section
of that particular structural remember.

So, what is being done is that we add strrups which are welded we add longitudinal
reinforcement and this longitudinal reinforcement is anchored in the existing concrete
somehow with a rayson mix and we finally, concrete the outside surface and this can be
done either by normal concreting that is placing the formwork and poring the concrete
compacting it and so on or it could be done by shotcreting or it could be done by pre
placed aggregate concrete the idea being that there is reinforcement outside an existing
structure and a concrete covers that we increase the cross sectional area or keeping the
cross sectional area the same and so on.

When, we are doing jacketing we need to be especially careful about the need to provide
shear key bars and these shear key bars are bats like this which are provided to ensure

1257
that the newly added material that is the jacket at concrete becomes monolithic with the
existing concrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:53)

Now, let us talk about stitching suppose we have a crack like this in a structure one of the
options available to repair this crack or prevent this crack from spreading either
lengthening or increasing in width would be to stich it. Now, how do we stich it remark
and drill holes and both sides of the crack that is here and here across the crack chase a
grove between the drilled holes; so we make a chase or a grove around the across this
crack like this insert a u shape m s bar in the wholes that expanse the crack and grout this
on either side and fill the chase.

So, what is happened is that this crack now has these u shaped clips or m s bars which
are spanning the crack now as the crack tries to move it has to cause failure of these clips
before the crack and move, so effectively these m s roads or clips serve to erased any
crack growth because is steel is not easy to feel it is not so easy to apply enough stress on
the steel to fail is steel is a fairly high strength material as far as filling of these groves is
concerned we could do it with mortar we could do it with concrete we could do it with
the epoxy concrete whatever, we want.

1258
(Refer Slide Time: 22:48)

Now, let us talk about of fiber rap now fiber rap is basically another form of jacketing
where the deteriorated concrete here is raped with fiber. So, it is non-intrusive
strengthening to increase the load carrying capacity with minimum damage to existing
concrete several layers of bidirectional woven material of woven fabric is held together
within appropriate resin.

So, it is not a single material here or it is not a single layer of fiber it is several layers of
bidirectional fibers woven and held together within appropriate resin and in a manner of
speaking as I said it is just on the form of jacketing so instead of a reinforce concrete
jacket we are placing a FRP jacket on a deteriorated concrete member its very effective
as far as column is concerned.

But, it can also use for other members you will recall that we had some discussion on use
of the FRP materials for repair and these strengthen in of concrete members or
deteriorated concrete members when we were talking about the applications of fiber
reinforced plastics in civil engineering construction.

1259
(Refer Slide Time: 23:59)

And now, coming to perhaps the last basic method for repair of concrete structures that
we are talking about today, we come to external stressing. Now, what is external
stressing? we must remember the cracks in concrete can be closed by inducing a
compressive force which is sufficient to overcome the tension which is cause the cracks
to basically, if we have a concrete member with cracks like this, if we apply a sufficient
compression on the concrete as shown the chances are that we will be able to close these
cracks.

And once we are able to close these cracks half a four battle as far as reducing the rates
of deterioration has been one because these cracks are not only melodies from this
structural point of view themselves. But, also provide easy ingress to deleterious
materials such as carbon dioxide and air water may be chlorides into the concrete and
that accelerates the deterioration process.

If we are able to close these cracks we are at least be able to slow down ingress of these
materials into concrete, and how can we induce this kind of compression is what we get
when we externally is stress or this what is called external pre stressing, out cable pre
stressing. Now, without getting into the details of this output cable pre stressing because
if talked about a little because we have talked about at earlier in this cores.

1260
(Refer Slide Time: 25:53)

We will just recall pre tension pre stressing, where reinforcing tendons are tensioned in
stage one concrete is caused and allowed to harden and then this stresses transferred to
concrete to induce compression. As contrast to post tensioned pre stressed systems where
concrete is cast normally leaving ducts with then tendons or placed within these ducts
and tension and after curing of concrete, and once the tension is removed using
appropriate anchors at the ends the concrete is placed and compression.

Externally tension pre stressed which is often interest to us now in these kind of
externally tension pre stress systems which are often interest from point of view of repair
in rehabilitation of structures is a system, where pre stressing tendons are placed outside
the concrete and there is no continues bond. Once these tendons are outside of course,
they have they merit that any problems in terms of maintenance can be actually
monitored at the points of anchorages points of supports the tension in these tendons and
so on.

1261
(Refer Slide Time: 27:12)

So, what we had said at the outside today that we will focus on some of the common
methods of require in rehabilitation and that something which we have now completed
having gone through a verity of methods which are used or can be used in concrete
structures apart from simple method a part from simple methods such as impregnation of
cracks application of coating pleasing and over lay and so on.

We will not gone into the details of these methods, we will not gone into the design of
these methods and that something which is very very important. One can imagine that
each of these methods has a structural implications, when we are talking about of fiber
rap, when we are talking of RC jacketing, when we are talking of m s plate bonding get
tend to alter this structural behavior of the members and therefore the structure.

So, any such method the use what kind what time what nature and so on must be decided
by a structural engineer or in consultation with structural engineer, who should s s the
implications of carrying out this maintenance action on the behavior of the structure.

1262
(Refer Slide Time: 28:40)

Now, having said all that lets quickly run through some results from laboratory studies
on repair methods in their efficiency which will give you an idea as to what is the kind of
work that needs to be carried out from an engineering point of view to better understand
the different materials and their efficiency as far as repairing and reinforcement of
concrete structures is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:11)

What we will talk about is two studies the first one is an experimental study to evaluate
failures of surface of the concrete repair material interface and this study was published

1263
is sank think you which is a general of the institute of industrial science university of
Tokyo, some time ago now if you look at are reinforced concrete beam with a repair as
shown here.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:24)

What we understand is that the behavior of this beam after it has in repair would change
depending upon factors such as the location of the repair whether it is from the top face
that the compression the void it shown or the bottom face which is the tension face the
location of the repair, whether it is in mid span or closed to the supports the depth of
repair and so on.

Apart from all that it will obviously depend on how they would concrete and the repaired
surface bonds that is the interface of the old surface in the new surface so as a part of the
study with discussion really in this in this research work was focused on an
understanding of the interface and different combination of stress of concrete can be
expected depending on the extent on location of repair in this portion here we would
expect a certain state of stress if the repair was being at carried out at this point we would
expect another point kind of stress and so on.

So, really need to understand how the interface behaves under the action of different
stresses so compact ability of repair materials with the parent concrete in terms of
material and mechanical properties for effective repair needs to be ensured and of course,
once we have the basic properties with us determined experimentally we could use final

1264
element methods or any such program to simulate or analytically examine would
behavior of the repaired concrete beam.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:18)

Now, as far as the steps in the specimen preparation is concerned there is base concrete
which is cast and left to cure under gunny bags for 28 days the surfaces rough end using
a water jet repair martials caused or shotcreted with the composite specimen being left
further cure in layer for another 4 to 7 weeks.

(Refer Slide Time: 31:43)

1265
And in this case different test was carried out for the pore tension test this here outlines
the basic process casting the concrete block of 500 by 500 by 80, on which a certain
layer of 20 mm of repair material is to be placed, the surface preparation is carried out
repair material is overlaid, and are drill is used to create a specimen which is shown here,
and then we carry out a full of tests a full of tests really means fixing up fixture on the
surface and trying to pull it of trying to ensure their by failure in this small
neighborhood, whether the failure occurs within the repair material or at the interface or
in the concrete. So, now in order to do that this depth that we make as far as the coring is
concerned is fairly important and this here shows of fairly specimen.

(Refer Slide Time: 32:56)

As far as direct shear test is concerned a concrete resin is cast the concretes from the
middle is removed and we and we can we carryout in a appropriate excise, as far as the
surface of the concrete is concerned cast the repair material here, and then finally,
subject this specimen to shear

It should be remembered that this process of casting the concrete prism and then
removing the concrete is not the same as casting this block of concrete and this block of
concrete first and then placing this repair material within the reason for that is that in
case we cast the concrete and then just place the reinforcing material, and then place the
repair material within the block.

1266
We would not be doing any surface preparation of the concrete the concrete at the
surface would not be really the same as the concrete that we would get of the removing
the concrete which is originally cast. So, these are some fine differences or points that
one must remember when we are doing in a experimental work, we must try to simulate
the actual or the field conditions to the extent is possible.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:26)

When it comes to combined shear and compression test a cylindrical specimen 75

millimeters in diameter in 150 mm long was prepared the cylinders were cut at a slope of
30 degrees to the longitudinal after whatever surface preparation has to be done the
cylinders were recast using the repair material. So, we cast the cylinder here remove part
of this cylinder and then fill this part with the repair material and test this composite
cylinder and see what happens at the interface as far as failure is concerned.

1267
(Refer Slide Time: 35:13)

These are some of the results which have been obtained from the pure tension pure shear
compression and shear values for different surface preparations the values are different
and of course, these are the results for the compressive strength young’s modulus
poisson ratio and the consult strengths of the individual concrete and the repair material.

So, we can see that the compressive strength of the repair material per say is much higher
than that of concrete. But young’s modulus the poisson’s ratio on the tensile strengths
parameter not so much a part.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:52)

1268
Now, coming to another experimental work which was an extension from the previous
one where we studied the interface this one was behavior of repaired RCB in general
cyclic loading this was also published in the Seisan Kenkyu.

(Refer Slide Time: 36:07)

Here, eight beams were repaired and non-repaired control beams were there and they
were tested to and they was subjected to fatigue that is repeated loading, we used to
repair materials and the beams were repaired over length of 80 percent of the span the
depth of repair was kept it two levels the cover thickness plus about half the diameter of
the bar and in another case the repair thickness extended 20 millimeters beyond the
reinforce in bars.

Now, this is similar to the kind of discussion that we had earlier about a good repair and
bad repairs system in one case, if this is the bar the repair material was caused up to this
point which is the cover depth plus half the diameter of the bar in another case the repair
material extended all the wave beyond to the extent of 20 millimeters behind the bars,
and as we said there were two materials used one was cement based and the other was
polymer based.

1269
(Refer Slide Time: 37:14)

This is a typical sketch or the diagram which shows the dimensions and the
reinforcement details of the reinforce concrete being used the beams were all under
reinforced with the main reinforcement of about 1.18 percent, the x by d which is the
neutral accesses to the effective depth of ratios about 0.24, nominal used nominal shear
reinforcement being used these beams were finally tested for fatigue.

(Refer Slide Time: 37:40)

The original concrete beam were cast using the appropriate thermo coal piece at the
location to be later covered with repair material is thermo coal peace was obviously

1270
removed and then there was obviously removed at the time of placing the repair material,
the beam was cured for 4 weeks the exposed concrete surface was roughened using a
high pressure water jet and primer was applied at the concrete surface to improve the
bond between the parent concrete and the require material, and that is typically done
even when we are carrying out the repair in reinforcement work in a site, and the repair
material was applied using shotcrete. Whether, it was cement based or it was polymer
based in this case the repair was done using shotcrete.

(Refer Slide Time: 38:31)

Four point loading test was carried out using an a by d ratio of 5.1. The upper in lower
limits of fatigue cycle tests were set at 22 to 75 percent of the maximum static load and
the frequency of load without load reversal is 1.5 hertz.

So, this really describes the fatigue test so we should remember that if we without getting
into the details of fatigue tests were carried out how they should be carried out we just
explained, the principle of fatigue test here when we are testing a reinforced concrete
beam in static loading forget about fatigue loaded if its static loading, what we do is keep
increasing in this load till the beam fails now in a fatigue load or repeated application of
load we increase the load two a certain level and then cycle the weight is shown.

Now, this level which is the maximum load level has been kept at 75 percent of astatic
load carrying capacity of the beam if this load level here is allowed to come to 0 and in
fact the load could be a applied from the other side and that is what is going to happen in

1271
a true reversible test of a reinforce concrete beam, where the beam is subjected to
loading from both sides and the top and the bottom loose there meaning in the sense that
when the load is applied one side a certain side is in compression and the other side
being intension and if the loads being applied from the other side the tension in
compression faces change. In this case instead of being that without load reversal we
continued the load to be only in a manner that this does not happen and this face
continues to been tension all the time except that the extent of tension or the amount of
tension changes as the load is being applied.

Now, this load level was kept at 20 percent of the static load carrying capacity so with
this twenty percent and 75 percent serving as the bonds serving as the bounds of the load
applied the test was carried out and the attempt was to the term in the number of cycles
to failure the deflection as we were performing these test was also measured using
normal transducers.

(Refer Slide Time: 41:16)

And, this here gives us the cycles to failure as far as the different beams are concerned,
so instead of this is and 1000, so if add in other three zeros. Here, 1.27 a 1.3 million
cycles for the control being this shows the number of cycles at which the beams failed
and this gives us the percentage of the fatigue life of all these beams. Now, we will not
get into the details of the discussion but, we must not that the values range from 18
percent or 18 and half percent to situations, where the beam has actually becomes

1272
stronger than the control beam. One must remember that these are after all only single
beams that have been tested and that something which I wanted point out two flag to
you, the importance of actually carrying out test which are more in number.

So, that we are more confident about the repeatability of posttests about the reliability of
the results that we obtain. Except that in the case of fatigue testing to get even one point
takes a long time, if we are testing at 1.5 hertz or 1 herts and the test goes on for million
cycles I would leave it you to determined or estimate how much time has been spent
when that beam and all that experimental operators has been occupied applying the load
on the membrane, and in order carry out seven or eight tests to better understand the
different materials that are being used if their efficiency and so on.

It is a very very time consuming excises takes not only time, but all kinds of a other
resources, that is why it is important to understand to material behavior the interface
behavior in terms of numerical models supported by experimental results, so that the
basic design can be carried out based on the analytical results with the with only a few
points on the periphery or bench marks being established using experimental results.

(Refer Slide Time: 43:41)

Before, we close the discussion today I would like to acknowledge the material used
from the Japan society of civil engineers publications and the permeations from my
adviser and group Professor Uomoto and also thanks some of the students, so we have

1273
been part of my classes to have together some of the material here, and as is usual before
we finding close the discussion.

(Refer Slide Time: 44:05)

Let us take some things back home list some of the repair materials in the properties,
how they properties effect the interfaces study the details of the methods of repair
discussed materials, the procedure quality control, whether it is fiber rap, whether it is m
s plate bonding, whether it is RC jacketing, and so on it could make a list of ten case
studies of major repair on our reinforcement work which are reported in literature for
different bridges for different buildings and examine the details there are case studies
where crack injection and repair has been carried out on large damps.

We could get information about the design guidelines available for repair in
rehabilitation work. And lastly mention was made of a parameter called a by d in the
context of testing of beams, which were been tested for repeated loading. What is the
importance of this parameter if you would remember the value that was used in the
present study for a by d is given as 5.1. Now, what is the importance of a by d and y one
should use numbers greater than 5 when we are testing reinforced concrete beams a
something which you can in think about.

Thank you.

1274
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 39
Laboratory Demonstration

(Refer Slide Time: 00:27)

As the first part of the discussion today, let us take up the materials; that we use in
normal concrete construction. This here is some of the naturally occurring coarse
aggregates. You will notice that the edges of all these aggregates are round and they are
all of different sizes. So, we get a particle size distribution of these coarse aggregates;
some of which may be smaller, some of which may be larger and so on. So, in contrast to
this naturally occurring coarse aggregate, we have crushed stone as coarse aggregates.

Now, these aggregates are prepared by crushing naturally occurring rock, and again these
two are of different sizes; and they have sharp edges, because when we manufacture
them by crushing the rock, we get this sharp edges in contrast, naturally occurring
aggregates have been rounded by the action of natural forces such as, wind or water and
so on.

Now, if you look at another sample of coarse aggregates, which is this. We see that these
aggregates are largely smaller than this. So in order that, we get a particular particle size
distribution for a particular concrete, we need to mix the aggregates, which may have
this particle size distribution and some aggregates, which have this particle size

1275
distribution, which would obviously on the larger size. It is not very common to mix
natural aggregates and crush zone.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:15)

Now, let us look at some samples of fine aggregate. This is one set of fine aggregates,
which is what we will use as or what we can sand compare to this, we have another
sample of sand, which look something like this. And if we look at this, even by the look
and test the field, we know that this sand is coarser than this sand, depending on the
application that we have in mind, we use the coarser sand or the finer sand.

The finest modulus of these two sands is different; The finest modulus which is a single
parameter for representing the fineness or the particle size distribution of fine aggregate,
this sand will have a fineness modulus of about 2.2, 2.3. Whereas this sand, which is
finer will have a fineness modulus of about 1.1, 1.2 or something like that. This is the
sand, which we often use in our plastering application; this is the sand, which we
generally use for concrete.

Now, we come to the most important and perhaps most expensive of, the construction
materials in concrete and that is cement. So this is ordinary Portland cement; that is the
one that, we use for most of our concrete construction, may be in mortar plaster and so
on and so forth its grain color is very fine and we will need to study its properties in great
detail, before we can actually use it. And lastly, this is water, which provides the basic
ingredients for the hydration of cement.

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Now, we come to the additional material; that is used in concrete other than the coarse
aggregate, fine aggregates, cement and water. First of all, let us look at fly ash, which is
used as a substitute of cement. So there are different kinds of fly ash; which may be
looking different but, they are looking very fine powders and the fineness is comparable
to that of cement.

As, we have fly ash there is also silica fume, and if you look at silica fume, this what it
looks like this powder is difficult to see but, if you have a chance, please take a look and
you will realize that, the fineness of this powder is much higher. Typically silica fume
has the fineness of about 1/10 of normal cement.

Now, what we do this cements is that either we can mix the cement and the pozzolanic
material at the cement plant, what we get is the pozzolanic Portland cement? that is a
cement in, which the ordinary cement or the ordinary Portland cement has been
premixed, which something like fly ash at different levels of replacement may be 10
percent, 15 percent or whatever to produce PPC or pozzolanic Portland cement other
varieties of cement are also available in the market; for example, this is white cement.

Now, how do we get white cement as against the normal grey colored ordinary Portland
cement? is something, which I would like to leave as an assignment, there is some
process, that is required to choose the raw materials carefully. So that, what we get is
white cement, that is does not have the grey color.

Continuing our discussion with special materials or materials, in addition to those use the
normal concrete construction. Let us take a look at, a sand substitute this material here in
copper slag; it is a byproduct from the copper industry and the idea is, that given its
fineness, it does not qualify as a cement substitute.

However, it can very well be used as a sand substitute, compare the properties of this
copper slag with the properties of sand, which we saw earlier there are differences but
there is a logical basis to believe, that this material which is copper slag, can be used as a
substitute for normal sand, at least in concrete construction given the fineness of this
material, it may not be possible to use it as a substitute for very fine sand.

So, we have to go through the same tests as, we go for normal sand determination of
fineness modulus, determination of water absorption and so on. And decide, whether we

1277
can use copper slag or not? and how much of copper slag can be used without effecting
the properties of concrete?

Let us look at, another sand substitute this is again recycled sand but, that produced from
crushed concrete, recycled concrete, concrete structures, which have been demolished
and so on. Give us demolished concrete or waste concrete, waste hardened concrete now;
that concrete if it is crushed gives us something like this, and this again is a possible
option against the naturally occurring sand. The naturally occurring sand, is becoming
more and more of a pressures commodity and we must ensure as, concrete engineers to
have a sustainable concrete; that is concrete, which relies less and less on natural
materials.

So, if we can find substitutes the better, it is crust concrete also gives us larger size
particles as shown here, and on the face of it, and they can be used as a substitute for
crushed stone and coarse aggregates. So, look the coarse aggregates here and look at the
recycled aggregates, here there is a difference but, yes they can be used at least in certain
applications and the challenge is to identify the proper applications or the applications,
where we can use this kind of recycled material rather than using virgin coarse
aggregate, which is shown here.

So, recycled concrete gives us an option in terms of coarse aggregates, which have a
certain size distribution and also fine aggregates, which has another précised distribution
much smaller and this is, what is comparable to sand? And this is, what is comparable to
coarse aggregates? Notice that, recycles aggregate is different from naturally occurring
aggregates. Recycled aggregate often has mortar is sticking to the surface of old
aggregates; sometimes we have old aggregates, which also has a coating of cement paste
or mortar and sometimes particles of mortar or portions of mortar head here to the coarse
aggregates.

What happens is the result of this adhesion of mortar, in the case of recycled aggregates?
is that the water absorption of these coarse aggregates increases in the properties of the
concrete; that we get if we use recycled concrete as coarse aggregate, will be different in
terms of strength and so on. Because there strength of these aggregate in certain sense is
lower than the strength of these crust stones.

1278
Other than mineral admixtures, we said that we use chemical admixtures in concrete;
now these chemical admixtures, which is shown here are usually available as fluids and
they can serve the purpose of air entrainment water reduction, retardation, acceleration
and so on. And so forth depending on, what chemicals actually go into making this kind
of a liquid.

As far as, using this admixture in concrete is concerned; we have discussed that these
admixtures are measured endorsed in term of cement percentage. We take a precise
volume of the chemical admixture and diluted with water, and this water now is properly
measured again and used as a part of the mixing water. So we rarely use chemical
admixtures in the concentrate form but, we use them in a diluted form. We do a an
appropriate dilution and use the diluted chemical admixture, as part of the mixing water,
this ensures a better distribution throughout the concrete mass.

At, another additional material or material other than the normal materials, that we use in
concrete construction. Sometimes is fibers and these fibers if you see here, these are steel
fibers; these fibers can be of different shapes; they need not be crimped like this, they
could be bent at the edges like this or they can have different diameters, different length
and so on. And depending on the kind of fiber that we want to use. We need to carryout
studies to determine, what is the kind of mix proportion; that we will need to use.

This steel is not the only material; that is used for fibers. We sometimes use glass fibers;
these are glass fibers, you will notice that they are much shorter, at least the sample. That
I am showing you is much shorter than the steel sample, that we saw just now.

Other than glass, we also use polypropylene fibers, which is being shown here; now
these fibers are with again very difficult to work with as far as, the ability to mix in
concrete is concerned. We will study about the properties of steel fiber or glass fiber
reinforced concrete subsequently but, please remember that all these fibers, whether they
are polypropylene or glass or steel, different shapes, different sizes, different diameters,
different lengths; they all need to be mixed in concrete and therefore, we have to ensure
that their distribution throughout the matrix is homogeneous.

Any discussion on concrete construction is not complete, unless we talk about the
reinforcing material, as well this here is the normal m s bar or mild steel rod of a certain
diameter in contrast to this; we have these bars, which are of different diameters may be

1279
something like this, which is smaller then there are bars, which are bigger something like
this or something like this b.

Now, these steel bars go to reinforce the concrete be weak in tension, what we use in
reinforce concrete, is steel as a reinforcing material and you will notice that, these bars
have ribs on the surface and these ribs help to increase the bond strength of the concrete,
and the steel bar; now these bars are susceptible to corrosion, that is over a period of
time. Even if they are embedded in concrete, they will corrode and as one of the
corrosion resistant measure, that we use is to use epoxy coated bars; that is something
like this and here we will see that; it is nothing but, a normal steel bar except that, it has a
coating on the surface; and this coating of epoxy on the surface of steel helps, prevent
any direct contact between the atmosphere and the steel and therefore, the life of this
steel bar is much longer than that of normal steel bars. Of course, they become a little
more expensive than the steel bars.

Apart from epoxy coated bars, which are at the end of its steel. We also use non
corrosive materials such as, fiber reinforce plastics; and these are now available as
alternative reinforcing materials to be used in reinforce concrete or pre-stressed concrete
construction. Since, they are manufactured as an engineering product. We can actually
change the properties, the shape, and so on of the fiber reinforce plastic. The fiber again
in this case, could be glass it could be carbon, it could be aramid, and so on. And they are
available in different shapes and sizes.

For example: this here is a round bar, this here is a flat; these also fiber reinforce, it is a
fiber reinforce plastic and is available for reinforcement of concrete construction, except
that in this in these two cases, we can notice that there is no corrugation or a mechanism,
by which we can increase the bond between the reinforcing material, which in this cases
the fiber reinforcing plastic or the fiber reinforce plastic and the surrounding concrete.

This is a sample of the long strand of glass fiber, and we saw the shorthand version of
this. When we saw the short glass fibers, so these long glass fibers can be used and in
fact, they are used to manufacture glass fiber reinforced plastic rods, which could be of
this shape finally, and on this bar you would notice, that there are corrugations to
improve the bond between the concrete and the reinforcing material.

1280
Another way of improving, the bond between the reinforcing material and the fiber
reinforce plastics could be sand deposits, so we make some effort and deposit sand or
create roughness on the surface of the bar, so that we get a better bond between the
reinforcing material and the surrounding concrete. Continuing our discussion, with the
epoxy coated bars; we know that in certain cases the bars need to be bent at site, which is
shown here. And this is a bent epoxy coated bar and we should be careful. When we are
using such bars to make sure that, there are no cracks on the coating. Because once, we
coat the bar and bend it, the outsides surface here is subjected to tension and the coating
is likely to crack, unless it has a sufficient amount of deformability.

This is another variety of steel, being used in concrete construction and is a strand, which
we use in pre-stress concrete construction. So if we look at the cross section here, this
has 7 individuals strands like this, which are woven into a single strand, these are 7
wires. If you want to call them, woven into a single strand and this is, what is used as a
reinforcing material in problem-stress concrete construction.

Since, fiber reinforce concretes are made in the factory, to conform to whatever kind of
properties, we want by controlling the volume of fiber, the type of epoxy, that we use the
type of fiber itself, we calculate get them in different forms.

For example: These are carbon fiber woven fabric; a similar fabric is a random mat in
carbon fibers like this. In a unidirectional carbon fiber fabrics, all the fibers are aligned in
one direction, in a case of a woven fabric, which is like this they are aligned in both
directions. So we get reinforcement action in both sides in this case, we get
reinforcement action only in the one side; that is the direction in which the fibers are
aligned.

Different uses of all these materials, in terms of the fabric or in terms of the fiber
reinforce plastic rods or flats are being discovered, are being used in order that the
concrete construction, becomes more durable. Use of fiber reinforce plastics in normal
reinforce concrete construction is still a far dream; they are costly materials but, yes
engineers are willing to use them in special applications, where we want durable
construction, which should be free from any risk of corrosion of the reinforcing bars.

Now, one of the things that we need to bother about, is techniques shape of the
aggregates. So this is the normal aggregate or crust stone, which is used as aggregate

1281
which we saw, you will notice that by and large, these aggregates are cuboids; that is the
3 dimensions are more or less. Similar we have to be careful, that we do not have too
many particles, which are like this, which have 1 dimension which is longer than the
other two and that part is controlled by determining, what is called the elongation index.

So, we here we see some of these particles, which are elongated; that is 1 dimension is
larger than the other two in comparisons, to this we have some other problem in
comparisons to these aggregates are flaky; that is 1 dimension is much smaller than the
other two and both elongated particles and flaky particles cannot be used in concrete
construction, they should not be used in concrete construction. We cannot avoid them
and therefore, usually what this specification say is that once, we have an aggregate
sample, we determine the elongation index and the flakiness index and it should be
within a certain permissible number.

We may mix some of these aggregates, which could be or perhaps flaky something like
this but, there should not be too many of them. Let us go to the second part of our
demonstration, here where we will see some equipment, which is used for testing of the
construction materials; that is used in concrete beginning with coarse aggregate; these
are the sieves in the lots of them, and they are just two of them, which are used to
determine the particle size distribution of aggregates. We put aggregate samples whether
its fine or its coarse, let them pass through this determine, how many or what fraction of
the volume or the mass is retained on the different sieve sets and we get the particle size
distribution.

Apart from the particle size distribution, these gauges are used to determine the flakiness
and the elongation index for flaky particles and for elongated particles. So there is a
process by which the aggregate sample is drawn and from that, we kind of identify
certain amount of the samples, which need to be tested and determine the flakiness index
and the elongation index using these gauges.

This here is a pycnometer, which is used to determine this specific gravity of the coarse
aggregate and the fine aggregate. Coming to testing of cement, this is the flask which is
used to determine this specific gravity of cements and in specific gravity of cements, we
since we cannot use water, we use kerosene as a medium and determine the volume of
cement and so on.

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(Refer Slide Time: 24:05)

When it comes to testing, the strength of cement, we use mortar samples; this apparatus
is used to determine the soundness of cement, what we do is to put a cement paste
sample in this cover it and put this entire assembly in water have it, at the certain
temperature and expose it for a certain period of time, and the measurement taken is the
distance between these two ends of the fork. So we measure these distance initially and
at the end, after the exposure and find out that. If there is any amount of deleterious
expansion in this paste, then this distance will tend to increase, that is how we measure
the soundness of cement.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:05)

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This, here is the blends apparatus to determine the fineness of cements. Fineness of
cement is expressed in terms of centimeter square per gram or meter square per kilogram
and this determined using the blends apparatus, where we take a cement sample in this
tube in a certain manner, close this put this on this surface here and then the cement
sample, which is packed in this part as a wet. We allow a certain amount of air, using this
contraption here to pass through that bed. And if the cement is very fine, then the amount
of time it takes for a certain amount of air to pass through is much larger.

So, we calibrate this apparatus using a powder of known fineness. And we know, how
much time it takes with respect to that time? How much time does it take for a given
cement sample for the air to pass through and so on? We try to estimate, the fineness of
cement in terms of the centimeters square per gram. That is the surface area per mass or
unit surface area or specific surface area of the cement. Usually the specific area of
cements is about 3500 to 3800 centimeter square per gram.

(Refer Slide Time: 26:21)

One of the important parameters for cement is, consistency standard, consistency setting
time, initial setting time, and the final setting time. Now, all these tests are in principle
based on penetration resistance; that is a paste, which is here in this mold. If the
penetration resistance to this for a given load is high, then the material as set, if it offer.
If it does not offer any penetration resistance, then the material is still very close to being
a fluid, what we use is a vicat apparatus, which is shown here. And what we do is to

1284
place the cement sample something like this, and use these different plungers it could be
a plunger; it could be a needle like this or it could be a very special type needle, which is
like this. These are used for consistency initial setting time and final setting time.

What happens especially, the final setting time is a very interesting experiment, where
we wait for the cement paste to set to the extent. That if you notice carefully here, there
is a needle, which is penetrating just outside the round surface here. What we need to
ensure, for the final setting time is that, the needle at the center should make a mark and
the outside surface should not be visible. So once we fix these plungers, either it is this
one here or it is this one ort, it is this one; we try to use this mechanism by which the
plunger or the needle is allowed to fall into the cement paste and depending on the kind
of penetration resistance, that we get we have our observations in terms of the
consistency, standard consistency initial in the final setting time of cement, determined
using a paste sample, which is here, which is placed in this mold and is nothing but, a
mixer of water and cement.

This test can obviously, be now modified or adopted to determine the consistency or
initial setting time or final setting time of another cement, which has placed where the
cement has been replaced by a pozzolanic Portland cement or any other chemical
admixture or a mineral admixture has been padded to modify the cement paste.

So, the principle of penetration resistance remain the same. The same apparatus can be
still be used, except that the standards that we use the specifications, that we use the test
method and so on. They will change depending on what kind of paste is being used.
Strength of cement is determined using mortar. And this is a mortar sample, that we use
and what we do is to fill this mortar in a mold of a certain size, which is something like
this and what we get at the end of it, after it has hardened and so on. Is the cube, which is
something like this and these cubes are tested for strength and we get a value of the
strength of sand, we get a value for the strength of the cement.

Now, why do we use mortar and not cement paste? when we are determining the strength
of cement, the answer lies in this specimen. Here you will notice that, this is a pure paste;
that is just water and cement allowed to stand for a long period of time and we find that
there are lots of these cracks, which are formed on the surface, these are shrinkage
cracks, because of the heat of hydration and because of the dimensional changes in the

1285
cement, as it hydrates. Because this problem with cement paste, we do not use cement
paste and rather use mortar. However, we have to be careful that the properties of the
sand, do not affect the strength of the cement, which has been determined and therefore,
what we do is, use standard sand.

(Refer Slide Time: 30:53)

This here is a set of 3 sands, which are used in the determination of strength of cement;
this sand here if you notice is the coarsest and this here is the finest, and this as an
intermediate sand. We mix apart of all these sands, in fact the indian standards requires
the 200 grams of cement; we mix with 200 grams of each of these sands, so we have 800
grams of the powder or sand, and cement together mixed with a certain amount of water,
to give the cubes; and we use those cubes to determine the strength of cement.

We have been talking about the difference between, this specific gravity of coarse
aggregate or fine aggregate and the bulk density. The specific gravity is the density of
the material parse. The bulk density includes the volume of voids, which may be there in
the aggregate when it is packed.

Now, in order to determine the bulk density, which has its own use. We use a fixed
volume container something like this, fill it with aggregates in a certain manner, whether
it is 3 layers or 4 layers or whatever compacted, using a temping rod, which is something
like this. Once the compacted aggregate is filled in the in a container something like this,

1286
we know the volume of the container and we know the mass of the aggregate from that
given this specific gravity.

We can find out, how much is the void ratio? what is the extent of the void is present?
For example: This is a container, which we use for sand; it has been filled with sand and
obviously, what it means is that the sand has been filled in the container but, within the
sand particles, there are still a lot of voids.

How much voids are there, can be determined by pouring water into this, and finding out
what was the extent of voids and similar exercise is carried out, using a larger container
for the coarse aggregates. So, this is the container, which has been filled with sand and if
we know the mass of the sand, which has gone into this and the volume of the container,
which is very easy to determine. We can find out, the bulk density we can use this
specific gravity determined using a pycnometer, to find out how much is the voids in this
container?

The similar exercise is carried out for a larger container, for the course of for the case of
coarse aggregate. Now this is a hardened concrete core, now if you look at it closely, we
will find that there are aggregate particles of different sizes, which are embedded in a
matrix of mortar. This is what we have been talking about all along in the lectures.

Now, let us try to see how this principle actually operates? If we have a certain amount
of water taken here, then if we had any material to it, the volume of water or the level of
water keeps increasing, because part of the water is getting displaced by the aggregate
and this is not only and this is true not only for coarse aggregates but, also perhaps for
sand.

So, if we have added stand to the system, the level of water have increased, so basically
the what we talked about in the class was that, if we want to fix the volume of this
container, which will get to be a 1000 letters or a cubic meter and the proportioning
exercise really boils down to, how much water should be there? How much aggregate the
coarse aggregate and the fine aggregate should be there? And how much cement should
be there in order that their total absolute volumes become a cubic meter or a 1000 liters?

This principle will now be demonstrated, to you through mixing cement with water to
make paste, add fine aggregate to it, to get mortar. And then add coarse aggregate to it to

1287
get concrete to make the discussion quantitative. Let us take 1/2 a kg of water, which is
500 ml of water and we will mix this with a kg of cement.

Now, what that means is that, the water cement ratio of that paste will be 50 percent,
there is 500 grams of water and a 1000 grams of cement mixed, we will get a water
cement ratio 50 percent paste; this here is the cement paste, that we have having water
cement ratio of 50 percent.

I would like to draw your attention to seeing, how fluid is the fixed contrast? This paste
which has a water cement ratio of 50 percent with a paste like this, which has a water
cement ratio of about 30 percent, now in this paste we have less water far less water than
this paste here. So what this shows, is the basic principle that if we keep increasing the
water content in the paste, the fluidity of that paste will keep increasing its, an obvious
conclusion but, has major implications. As we shall see in this paste, which has a water
cement ratio of 50 percent, we will now add about 1.3 kgs of sand, and what we will get
is mortar? So this is the cement paste having a water cement ratio of about 30 percent.

Now, you can notice that this it has no flowable consistency, it is a fairly hard. Now if
we want to add or if we add some chemical admixture to it, which could be a water
reducer, what happens is by adding a chemical admixture in a suitable dosage, we can
get the same paste having a water cement ratio of 30 percent to have a virtually flowable
consistency like this, this property of chemical admixtures, which is a water reducer
could be used to reduce, the amount of water, that is required for a given consistency.

What we have seen in this experiment, is the chemical admixture being used to increase
the consistency or the make paste flowable. If we turn the observations, the other way
round. We can use this chemical admixture to actually reduce, the amount of water
required for a given consistency; and now consistency of this paste is the critical factor,
when it comes to the final consistency of the concrete. As we shall see when the
consistency of that paste changes, as sand is added to the system; that is its becomes
mortar and then coarse aggregate is added to that system and it becomes concrete.

Now, let us add coarse aggregate to this system and what we will get is concrete, we are
adding coarse aggregates of two radiations; the smaller version which is about 10 mm
aggregate and a larger version, which is 20 mm aggregate, both these size factions are
about 1.3 kgs again.

1288
So, let us add the coarse aggregate to the mortar and see what happens to the concrete,
this is the concrete that has been produced by mixing 1.3 kgs of 10 mm aggregate and
1.3 kgs of 20 mm aggregate to the mortar, which add 1.3 kgs of sand added to a fixed.
So, now this volume of concrete here has been produced, using 500 grams of water, 1000
grams of cement, 1.3 kgs or 30 100 grams of fine aggregate and 20 600 grams of coarse
aggregate. So, this is the concrete, which we now have and finally, if it was allowed
harden, what we will get is a core, which is something like this. So, we must understand
that the properties of the harden concrete are related to the properties of fresh concrete
and the properties of the fresh concrete parse in terms of workability, and so on are
related to the properties of paste and the amount of water, that has gone into the system.

We must remember that, workability is related to the amount of water and the strength is
related to the water cement ratio. Now here is the concrete, which is stiffer than the
previous concrete; it has a smaller amount of the water content and we will get a much
lower slump value, than we oared for the previous concrete.

Now, as I showed with the case of simply the paste, if had a chemical admixture to the
same concrete, which is here, which is reasonably stiff by adding a chemical admixture.
This concrete has been fluidized, it does not behave as a perfect fluid but, it is a higher
slump concrete than this one. So, we have show we are trying to show, how chemical
admixtures can be used to plasticize a concrete again. We can use the chemical
admixture to reduce the water demand as, we showed in the case of cement paste, when
we look at the concrete having a super plasticizers as this as in this case, we should
be careful to notice that the concrete does not segregate, that is it should not happen that
the coarse aggregates, become separated from the mortar phase. So, in this particular
case, we are seen signs of segregation in the concrete mix, because the chemical
admixture was added without a consideration to segregation.

1289
 Concrete Engineering and Technology
Prof. Sudhir Misra
Department of Civil Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

Lecture - 40
Review of the course

(Refer Slide Time: 00:32)

Welcome to this lecture in our module on concrete engineering and technology. Now,
this is lecture 40, the significance of it is that it is the last in this series, they were
different ways of doing this discussion at the end of this course. And I thought the best
way or one way perhaps would be to go back, today we started in lecture 1, and try to see
what we set out to achieve, and to what extent we have accomplished it. Now, this is a
slide from the first lecture, we share that the subject that of concrete engineering and
technology is acquiring tremendous significance, as we continue to use more and more
concrete in diverse conditions more challenging environments, we are using new
materials and new technologies in the different processes, which are related to concrete
construction or construction of concrete structures.

We have a lot more experience from previously built structures, in terms of observed
deterioration, in terms of their structural performance, and so on. One of the biggest
things that has happened is that we now realize that concrete is not a maintenance free
material; it requires periodic maintenance, and the structures need to be monitor, they
need to be evaluated from time to time in order to make an assessment, whether any

1290
corrective action is required, while the structures are in operation or in service. We find
rising concerns about the quality and durability of concrete construction, there is a lot
more pressure from all sides, the users, the regulators, to build durable concrete
structures; and all that has contributed to making the subject of concrete engineering and
technology, a lot more challenging, and has invoked the lot of interest.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:44)

Then we had also set out saying that, we need to understand or update our understanding
of concrete as a material and its properties; be aware of the development of special
concretes and their properties applications, they conscious of the limitations of the
existing test methods, and specifications, and work towards establishing new methods
and specifications for new concretes, more challenging environment, different kinds of
materials being used.

Understand the issues in shifting to a more performance based thinking, the thinking in
our present codes in specification is in terms of a prescription, that is if the concrete has
to be done in a certain environment, it has to be done, it has to be done in a certain way.
Then well do this, keep the water cement ratio to be, a maximum of 40 percent 45
percent, have a certain minimum cement content, have a maximum cement content, and
so on. That is not really performance based thinking, because the properties of concrete
as we have seen in this course, are not related to that single parameter alone, there are

1291
several other things, they contribute to the performance of concrete in a particular
situation.

Integrate words such as maintenance and repair, in the overall life cycle of a concrete, we
have not touched upon the cost component, but at the end of it finally, at some point in
time, there will be a discussion on the life cycle cost of structures, if a structure is
cheaper to build, but it is more expensive to maintain, and more expensive to get rid of at
the end of its service life. Then is that really the best structure is the present cost, the
only consideration, these are questions which we need to answer to ourselves, and to the
society, when we design and construct concrete structures in this day and age, so that
was the motivation of designing and delivering this course.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:03)

We have set out the aims at revising the basic principles underlying concrete science and
engineering, developing a framework which helps us understand the present day scenario
in concrete engineering, going through some issues in special and high performance
concretes, and their quality control and testing including, performance based thinking,
durability, and maintenance. In this we among all the keywords on this slide, we spend a
considerable amount of time talking about special concretes, and high performance
concretes. Defining, what is a special concrete in terms of materials being used, the
technology being used the properties of the concrete, and so on and so forth.

1292
(Refer Slide Time: 05:57)

Now as far as the contents are concerned, that is quickly run through the contents, as
they were laid down in the first lecture.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:03)

We said revising fundamentals of concrete, proportioning of concrete mixes, stages in

concrete constructions, special concretes, mechanisms of deterioration, reinforcement,
and maintenance.

1293
(Refer Slide Time: 06:17)

As far as fundamentals are concerned, we said that we will talk about the overview and
introduction to the course, which happen at the very outset talk about the constituents of
concrete, properties of fresh and hardened concrete, hydration of cement and strength
development, quality control issues.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:34)

As far as proportioning of concrete is concerned, we spend a considerable amount of

time, at this picture which shows, the essential volumetrics of concrete. That is at the end
of it a certain volume, a cubic meter, let us say has to be made up of certain ingredients,

1294
coarse aggregate, sand, cement, water, and air, that is normal concrete. But, if you want
to add mineral admixtures, use some other kind of aggregate, whatever we want to do,
fibers. In all these cases the volumetric balance has to be maintained, that 1 cubic meter
box is fixed, so we must keep that in mind, when we talk of proportioning concrete
mixes, and that is what we did at some length.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:35)

As far as stages in concrete construction is concerned, we had laid out materials and
proportioning, mixing, transportation, placing, vibration, and curing.

(Refer Slide Time: 07:48)

1295
As far as special concretes is concerned, we had laid out, fiber reinforced concrete, mass
concrete, self-compacting concrete, underwater concrete, roller compacted concrete, and
shotcrete has some examples of special concrete; based either on the use of materials or
the conditions of placement, and method used in placement, the environment of
placement, method in vibrating the concrete, and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:16)

(Refer Slide Time: 08:25)

1296
We had said that, we will talk about some mechanisms of deterioration in concrete
structures, and we had promised to talk about reinforcement corrosion, Alkali aggregate
reaction, and cyclic freezing and thawing.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:32)

(Refer Slide Time: 08:35)

As far as reinforcement is concerned, we had said that we will not talk about steel,
because that is a material which is very commonly understood, and is not to that extent a
part of course, or a discussion of concrete engineering, at this point in time epoxy coated
bars, and fiber reinforced plastics.

1297
(Refer Slide Time: 08:53)

As far as maintenance is concerned.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:55)

We had set out to talk a little bit about non-destructive testing, evaluation of structures,
based on non-destructive testing data, and a comprehensive plan for maintenance.

1298
(Refer Slide Time: 09:14)

With all these keywords, that we set out to discussing this course, to my mind, if we have
succeeded in developing a framework, which helps us understand the present day
scenario in concrete engineering; I think the purpose of this discussion in the last 38 39
lectures has been well served.

We have I hope a better understanding of materials, we have a better understanding of

the methods of placing, we have an understanding of special concretes. Basically, what
makes the concrete as a material, and a concrete structure special or important; we are
basically set out to achieve some understanding, as to what makes concrete different
today than it was let us say even 20 as ago, and if that purpose is been achieved, I think
we have achieved this goal.

1299
(Refer Slide Time: 10:24)

Now, let me focus a little bit on some of the central keys, that ran through all the
lectures, or all the discussion, that we had about concrete different aspects throughout
this 38 39 lectures, one was the composition of concrete - the shear volumetrics. And I
said just now, when we basically looking at when, we were briefly looking at the slide on
proportioning, that at the end of it is a cubic meter of concrete, that has to be
proportioned; whether we fill it only with coarse aggregate, or we can fill it with only
sand, or cement, or water, that is all right, but that would not make concrete the way, we
want the concrete to be in terms of its properties, whether it is fresh properties, or the
properties of hardened concrete. And therefore, we need to proportion the different
ingredients, add mineral admixtures to it, add materials such as fibers, and so on to it.

So that the properties of concrete are who are lightly, but the shear volumetrics of it is
something which is very very important, and we must remember some of those things,
then we talked in terms of the importance of chemical, and mineral admixtures, and how
a judicious choice of these admixtures, and their uses, the doses of these admixtures can
be used to engineer, the properties of concrete, whether it is workability, whether it is
strength, whether it is setting time air content temperature rise in mass concrete place
ability, and so on.

The behavior of fresh concrete, now fresh concrete is not something which a lot of codes,
a lot of books, lay a lot of emphasis on. Slump, air, temperature, Segregation, these are

1300
some fundamental properties, which we must remember to record, when we are doing
concrete construction. Because these are the properties that help define, what that
concrete is going to be at the end of the hydration process, at the end of the curing
period, and so on, and so forth. As far as, fresh concrete is concerned, it is also important
to understand, that water is the modified as a fluid, and it is fluid properties by the
addition of cement as a powder.

Even, if you forget about the hydration, that goes on so there is the paste that forms, that
paste has certain properties, and that get modified, those properties get modified, when
we add sand to it; and that is how we get mortar, and the properties of mortar get
modified, when we add coarse aggregate to it or fibers to it. So, we have continuously
talked in terms of concrete being suspension of coarse aggregate in mortar, mortar being
a suspension of sand and paste, and paste being a suspension of cement and water. It is
the volume fractions of these individual components, that are very very important, when
we try to study the properties of fresh concrete, and that has been a central thread
running through a lot of our discussion in this course. Concrete is not a maintenance
free-material, now that is another central theme in the discussion.

Concrete is a porous material, it has certain amount of porosity, whether we characterize

that porosity in terms of the total pore volume, or the pore size distribution, how we go
about measuring it, all that is fine. But at the end of it concrete is a porous material, the
porosity depends upon the water cement ratio, it can be modified to some extent by
adding mineral admixtures, and so on.

So, having said all that depending on the environment, in which the concrete structure is
located, the environment to which the concrete has a material is exposed to, it undergoes
changes, I am not using the word deterioration here, but it undergoes changes for sure.
And those changes are not limited to only hydration reactions, there is a chemical change
that happens, which could affect the strength, which could affect the cracking patterns
which could induce more cracks and so on.

So, at the end of it we must understand, as concrete engineers the different deterioration
processes that concrete could be undergoing, or could be likely to undergo depending on
the environment, in which the structure is located; and that is something which the

1301
designers must understand because that is because only, then they can design a durable
concrete structure.

(Refer Slide Time: 16:00)

Throughout this course, we are emphasized the need to work with performance
parameters, performance of fresh concrete, performance of hardened concrete.
Performance of fresh concrete being measured in terms of workability, air content; the
performance of hardened concrete being measure in terms of compressive strength,
tensile strength, parameters such as the rapid chloride, permeability tests gives us, the
coulomb values, and so on.

One of the lectures, when we have talking about freezing and thawing; we talked in
terms of the dynamic modulus of elasticity, as being one of the performance parameters
specially valid, or specially relevant in the cases, when concrete is subjected to cyclic
freezing and thawing. So, the emphasis has been on how do we measure performance,
we have tried to define good concrete, good fresh concrete, would hardly concrete; in
fact in one of the lectures we talked about using marginal materials, and yet trying to
produce acceptable concrete, and then we try to draw distinction between, good concrete
and acceptable concrete.

All concrete that we use, need not be good in the absolute sense, what it should be
acceptable and therefore, specification writers, engineers should be aware, that in a
manner of speaking, there is nothing like good concrete; any concrete that makes a

1302
specifications is good. And therefore, if we have rich specifications, that concrete is as
good, as a concrete which meets the specifications, which are not as good.

So, at the end of it, it is the specifications which are very important; continuing with the
discussion with parameters and performance parameters, we have always emphasized
throughout this discussion, the importance of testing; we cannot determine a parameter
unless, we test it; testing does not necessarily involve direct testing, direct testing means
testing to get the parameter, that we want to get.

For example, we want to measure the workability of concrete, now workability is an

idea, it just says the concrete should be workable; workable means it should be such that
it can be placed in molds, takes the shape of the mold, and so on. But how do we
measure the workability, as far as measuring is as far as the measurement of workability
is concerned, there are tests; there is a clump tests, there is the v b test, there is the slump
flow, and so on.

So, we have to have tests, and we have always emphasized that in different conditions,
for different concretes, there could be different performance parameters, and if there are
different performance parameters, they need to be a different set of tests. One should not
be afraid of inventing a new test method; standardization of test methods has been
another central theme in this discussion.

When, we do tests, it is important that the tests are carried out in a manner, that is
reproduced. By, not only the person, if he carries out the test at one point in time, and
other point in time. But also by different people carrying out the test across the world,
and that can happen only if the test has certain standards, that is there is an absolutely
laid out procedure, by which the test should be carried out.

Sometimes we may laugh, at a standardization or the level of standardization, if you

retest methods, such as the slump, if you read the test methods, for example, for the
slump test, or the air measurement, or any of the methods, for that matter; there is a lot of
detail, but that detail is important, because unless the detail is adhere to you, the test
results could be different, and if the test results are different, it is very difficult to
compare one result with the other, and you know the obvious problems, that we will
follow.

1303
Ingenuity ingenuity and innovativeness, we have not feeling emphasized on this aspect
but, it is a very important aspect, one must remember that all these test methods, whether
it is the slump test, or the air measurement, or the modulus of elasticity, or the dynamic
modulus of elasticity. And whatever test it is, these test have only had a certain amount
of history, and depending on the particular condition new test methods always need to be
developed.

The other day, I looked at a description of a slump flow test, what we have done in our
slump flow test, and that is how I have explained it, the way we have described the
slump flow test is we take the slump cone, and lift the slump cone after the concrete has
been filled, and we watch how the concrete spreads on this plate, and try to measure this
diameter.

Now, there is nothing wrong with this method, except that the other day, I saw a test
method for the slump flow, which said that well, we will fill the concrete in the slump
cone, but that cone has is helped upside down, in principle, if we were testing a fluid, this
configuration, and this configuration are really the same, but not so in the case of
concrete. Now, it is completely up to us to adopt, or adapt, any of these methods, so even
though we have often in fact, very often talked in fact, very often talked in terms of
ASTM, this test ASTM, that test or the British test having a certain number, which may
say that the test should be carried out as this, and will not talk in terms of this. But at the
end of it, it does not matter. As engineers, if you feel that this is more suitable to me,
then this you please go head, and do it except that one must be aware that, then it is not a
standard test at least till such time as, it has been excepted by the profession as a standard
test.

So, standard tests evolve over a period of time, we saw that, when we talk in terms of
self-compacting concrete, all the tests whether it is the u tube fallibility, or it is the l
shaped flow, whatever it was those tests are all improvisations, which have happened in
the last, let us say 20, 25 years. As engineers, as engineers realize that simply this, or the
v b, or the compaction factor, those tests were not good. Enough, when it came to
evaluating the performance of self-compacting concretes, or concretes which were highly
flowable, whether they were self-compacting, or not as a different story.

1304
Continuing with the discussion, or to give you another example of innovativeness, we
can use this configuration of the inverted slump cone, and use it, to measure the efflux
time of a concrete, we can hold this slump cone here, have a lead here; fill this concrete
up remove the led, and measure the time, and measure the time that it takes for the slump
cone to empty.

Now, this is an improvisation on the funnel, we talked in terms of a funnel test, where
the funnel is filled with concrete, a certain sized funnel of course is filled with concrete,
and we allow the concrete to flow away, record this time, and the time is a measure of its
flowability; we can there is no reason why we cannot do it with the inverted slump cone,
except that it is only a matter of what becomes more acceptable to the profession, what is
more easy to carry out at site, and so on.

Specifications for concrete have been another central theme in our discussion,
specifications basically define what we want from the concrete? or what the use of wants
in the concrete? or the client wants from the concrete does it have to set very quickly,
should it set later, what should be the maximum temperature that is, what is the
maximum temperature rise that is acceptable, and so on.

So, depending on where the concrete has to be used? What is the nature of that structure?
Where is it located? how important is it not only the design has to be carried out, when I
use design I mean structural design, not only the design has to be carried out in that
manner, but the concrete engineer needs to provide a concrete mix, which meets that
specification.

One of the problems, that I have seen, when I talk to concrete engineers in profession is
that, we do not specify the concrete properly, and if we do not specify the concrete
properly, there is no way that you will get good quality concrete; when it comes to food,
when it comes to clothing, we are very choosy, we know exactly what color we want we
know, exactly how much salt we want? But, when it comes to concrete workability, we
mat say well anything is alright, but that is not the way, concrete engineering can be
done for two longer time, we need to learn to write specifications property. As, I said
before, any concrete that meets the specification is acceptable and therefore, if we want a
higher grade of concrete, we should write it in their specifications, we have to specify it
as such.

1305
So, that is why testing methods, and specifications have been the core, or one of the core
items on our agenda, as far as this course is concerned. Quality control and acceptance,
that is something which we have talked about in all cases, and that is related to this
specifications, that is related to the test methods. Because, once we write specifications,
we cannot write qualitative specifications, if we can avoid that, we have to write
specifications in terms of performance parameters, we have to write specifications in
terms of parameters that can be actually measured, and we have to lay down the rules, as
to how the acceptance of concrete is going to be carried out.

We should remember that, concrete and concrete construction is very often, in fact more
often, then not public expenditure of funds, or expenditure of public funds and therefore,
one has to be very careful when dealing with acceptance criteria, and acceptance of
concrete, we cannot accept unacceptable concrete, or sub standards, sub specification
concrete, and that can be determined, only if the tests are carried out, and not only the
records have to be kept. Records have to be maintained to show, what kind of concrete
was used in different segments of a large structure? that is all part of a comprehensive
plan of quality assurance, and quality control, when it comes to construction of concrete
structures.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:30)

We have tried to emphasize through this course, the interdisciplinary nature of concrete
engineering, as it has evolved. Let us take some examples of what we have talked about,

1306
cement chemistry, and the chemistry involved in the hydration. Including the fact that
chemical admixtures, and mineral admixtures, alter this part of concrete engineering, or
are a very integral part, or important part of concrete engineering. When we use mineral
admixtures, or chemical admixtures, we alter this cement hydration, and that is
something if you want to get to the bottom of it, we need to know a lot more chemistry
than civil engineers generally do.

Continuing with that, we need to have some background in Rheology, and we are talking
of the properties of fresh concrete, how the concrete flows? What is the viscosity of the
concrete? What is cohesion? What is adhesion? So, these are terms that are common in
other disciplines of engineering, but not so common, as far as the understanding of
concrete is concerned. But when we use these terms, we have to have test methods to
evaluate it, we have not talked in terms, we have not talked in terms of a test method
which evaluates the viscosity of concrete, or the cohesiveness of concrete, and that
actually leads us to another discussion, and that we have done that in this course.

Sometimes we may not be able to measure the parameter, that we want to measure like
we talked in terms of workability, and we are not able to measure workability, we are
measure, we are measuring something which we think is related to workability, slump
test is the example of that, we talked about that just now.

Similarly, when it comes to viscosity, and the cohesiveness of concrete, we talked in

terms of a test called T 500 or T 50 which is the time, that is takes for the slump flow to
reach the level of 500 millimeters. As, the slump cone is been lifted, and the concrete
flows out, the time that it takes for this diameter to become 500 m m is what we had
talked of as T 500.

Now, a concrete that has a lower T 500 than another concrete, basically means that in
common parlance, we will say that, that concrete is more viscous, and that is why it is
taking more time to deform. We are using these words, but once we are using them in
engineering parlance, in an engineering sense, we had better be able to measure them.
And if we are not able to measure those properties, we should be able to at least measure
properties which are related to them, we have not had time to dwell too much on the kind
of equipment that is used in concrete construction, the mix the batching plants, or the
pumps, or the agitator trucks, the vibrators, the different kinds of vibratos, and so on.

1307
But, let me show you that, that is an integral part of a site engineers job, if you are
working at site with the lot of concrete, it will be expected that you know a lot about the
construction equipment, and the lot of construction equipment is related to concrete
construction.

Coming to deterioration mechanisms of concrete, we talked in terms of the reinforcement

corrosion; now corrosion is not something, which civil engineers very often talk about of
course, with the growing awareness towards durability related issues and the
reinforcement corrosion being fairly severe, and a way and visible in different structures
across the world, we know what corrosion is but, as engineers what we must know in
terms of the principles of reinforcement, corrosion and how they are different from
normal corrosion, that we see in a, that we see in everyday life, that is something which
we do not have a background in, as far as civil engineers are concerned.

Similar, is the case with alkali aggregate reaction; alkali aggregate reaction involves
understanding of a certain kind of chemistry. Now, these areas the corrosion of
reinforcement in concrete, or the alkali aggregate reaction are precisely the kind of areas
which are in some kind of a no mans land.

Reinforcement corrosion in concrete will not be researched, or talked about by serious

corrosions scientists, or engineers. Because, that is a very, very small, that is a very small
application, as far as corrosion science is concerned. And as far as civil engineering is
concerned, we will not often have the background to study that problem in depth, and the
same is the case of the alkali aggregate reaction. It is a very special kind of chemistry,
that is involved and therefore, we need to take interest learn certain things about a
different field, than what we have been traditionally educated in, or trained in, and try to
develop professional expertise in that.

1308
(Refer Slide Time: 35:50)

Nondestructive testing, opens another entirely different area of work, measurement of

natural potentials, we talked about, we talked about impact ego, or ultrasonic pulse
velocities; any of these methods involve the use of very sophisticated equipment’s
sometimes, and those equipment have their limitations. So, we must understand what the
limitations of those equipment’s are, somebody comes and tells us, that ground
penetrating radar, for example, is a very good tool, to help us locate reinforcing bars
within concrete; x y z is a very good tool to measure the thickness of concrete layers, or
the thickness of concrete deposited in a tunnel lining. We must understand the principle,
that underlies the measurements that we are talking about before, we can say that this
equipment, or this method will help us understand, what we want to understand about
concrete, but only under certain conditions. If the concrete is wet, then certain methods
would not work, if the concrete is absolutely dry, certain other methods would not work
and so on, and so forth.

So, basically we need to understand the mechanics or the processes, that are involved in
non destructive testing before, we can start using them. Four and six, now this is
something which we did not have the time to get involved with, as civil engineers one
can often be called upon to carry out an investigation, as to why a building collapsed.

One can often be called upon, to carry out an investigation as to, whether the concrete
that was used in construction at a particular place, whether the building collapses or not

1309
is precise the point, the concrete used at a particular place, met the specifications, in
terms of let us say the cement content, or the water cement ratio, or whatever it was.

Now, four and six of concrete is a very, very interesting, but an equally complicated
story; it is difficult to carry out tests, which will tell us or which will help us recreate the
situation, as it was at the time of construction, it could have been raining, it could have
been windy, there could have been a certain temperature at which the concrete was
placed, and so on; which requires the concrete engineers to keep the records properly.
We have emphasized throughout this course, that whatever is carried out each pore each
cubic meter of concrete that comes to side must be recorded, where it was used? what
were the conditions at that time? What were the conditions of concrete? and so on.

Now, that is something which is very very important to do; as far as the four and six is
concerned in terms of a determination of cement. For example, now that is a very very
complicated procedure, that has its errors one must understand, what is the range of
error? What is the extent of error involved when we measure a certain parameter?
Whether it is the ultrasonic pulse velocity, whether it is the strength of concrete, by a u t
m, whether it is the natural potential of reinforcement, when carrying out a test for
reinforcement corrosion, whether we are trying to measure the cement content in
hardened concrete.

What is the accuracy with which we are able to measure it? Or what is the
reproducibility of that result? Whether that sample represents that entire concrete mass;
all these are questions in order to answer, which we require serious amount of
background in diverse fields, so we have talked about different aspects, that are at the
inter phase of concrete, and a lot of other areas, as we have gone through different
lectures in this course.

1310
(Refer Slide Time: 40:28)

Throughout the discussion, importance of involvement of the construction industry to

research data, sharing, etcetera. to promote better understanding of both the science and
engineering of concrete has been emphasized; it has been emphasized that producing
concrete in the lab using lab mixer, or producing concrete using hand mixed concrete on
a small scale; those properties are very different, from the properties, that a concrete will
have, if it was mixed in a ready mix concrete plant.

The scale of the consistency of concrete quality, if a road project uses 1000 of cubic
meters of concrete, which is all required to be let us say m 25 or m 30, it is a whole lot of
data that accumulates, in the construction industry. On what was the variation in the
quality of concrete, which was all supposed to be m 30, there will surely be a variation.
In terms of the slump that we got for the different concretes, in the air content that we
got, in the strength that we got, and that is something which only the industry has; it is
not available very easily at least, in academic institutions.

The important of that data, as far as furthering, because of better understanding of

concrete science and engineering, that cannot be over emphasized, it simply very
valuable. And therefore, it is important, that the construction industry is a major partner,
as far as an endeavor to promote better understanding of science and engineering, as far
as concrete technology is concerned.

1311
(Refer Slide Time: 42:27)

In this particular course, there has been a deliberate practice tilt. Though the emphasis
has been on the principle, and at least that is what I would like to believe, for two
reasons: one is that I was trying to address the professional engineers, as well in addition
to the students in classrooms. And on the other side I wanted to give the students an
insight, in the practical aspects of concrete engineering, and construction. And given my
believe that concrete is a subject, which is best understood in the field, after a certain
amount of principles have been understood in the classrooms, in the laboratories. After
you go to the field, or once we have an understanding from field, then we go back to the
class rooms, and the principles that we cover there, we have a much richer understanding
of how concrete behaves as a material?

1312
(Refer Slide Time: 43:29)

Summarizing that part of the discussion, in the college undergraduate curriculum, there
is time to cover only the bare fundamentals, as far as concrete is concerned, in some
graduate level courses of course, there are some specific aspects such as, nondestructive
testing, or deterioration or repair, and rehabilitation, which are covered. So, what we try
to do here was to develop this material, as an aid to the teachers and students, putting
some of the things in perhaps a different perspective, and show the students a wider
range of issues, that are available for work. And also that lots of things are so completely
unknown, and there is a dire death of properly trained professionals, who can make
educated decisions.

For those of the students who are trying to go towards graduate studies, or research
work; effort has been to identify topics, or show you topics in diverse areas, which are
still unexploded, where the understanding is quit incomplete, there are challenges in all
areas which could motivate to understand those aspects better, and be able to contribute
to concrete engineering.

1313
(Refer Slide Time: 44:40)

As far as working professions are concerned, they need to update, and understand the
wider implications, and inter relationships of the different aspects of concrete.
Especially, in the Indian code IS456-2000 in including or persisting with the concept of
nominal mix, there is a serious disservice to the whole idea of modern concrete. There is
nothing like a concrete prescription, that if we use 1 part of cement, 1 1 by 2 parts of
sand, and 3 parts of aggregate, we would get m 20 concrete. That is simply not on, as far
as modern concrete construction is concerned.

Even, if somebody does it, it cannot have the sanction of a specification, we should not
be writing a specification, because as I said the specification shows what we want, and if
we want the concrete, which is simply having the ratio of the materials as 1, 1 1 by 2,
and 3, then we are not talking of the quality of the concrete, we are simply saying that
you mix the concrete, you mix the ingredients of concrete in this particular ratio, and
whatever it becomes will be acceptable to us.

Now, if that is the kind of concrete that we want, then I do not think we will be able to
survive too long, as far as serious concrete engineering is concerned. The material in this
module hopefully, can service a source for guidance on modern concrete principles, and
practices, and contribute to bridge the gap between an academic, and a practical stand
point.

1314
(Refer Slide Time: 46:24)

Food for thought has been a central part of our discussion, but of course, in this lecture
we cannot talk in terms of an assignment, but I must mention that the questions that have
been raised in this section of the lecture, have been deliberately open ended questions to
promote self-study.

(Refer Slide Time: 46:51)

One question of course, which I would like to give an answer to was raised during the
question, during our discussion, on durability design, which said formulate the durability
design guideline for structures exposed to chloride rich environment, and the answer to

1315
that to my mind would be, the specification should be something like, the cover provided
shall be such that at the end of the service life of the structure the concentration of
chlorides determined in the neighborhood of the reinforcement using a certain method,
does not exceed a certain value. This could be total chlorides, soluble chlorides,
whatever you want to include; this value, here could be based on the criticality of the
structure, what the conditions of exposure, and so on. And be related to whatever
threshold, chloride content has been established for the onset of corrosion, and so on.

(Refer Slide Time: 48:00)

So, with that coming to references, what is a kind of material that needs to be referred, to
in addition to the discussion, that we have been having, or to supplement the discussion,
that we have been having, with the breadth of the topics covered. In the present day and
age, it is difficult to prescribe books, there are so much information available in the
internet, the magazines, and so. On that is difficult to prescribe and perhaps, it is not
really required to prescribe a set of books.

Especially, if we are talking distance education, because this is not the kind of
discussion, where there are exams to be held, and so on. We are trying to talk in terms of
motivating self-studies; it is not really required, that there is this particular book, that we
follow. In addition to all this, I would rather say that, one is encouraged to read on topics
of individual interest, and then try to decipher the truth. Different books, different papers
would give us different information especially, when it comes to very specific topics,

1316
what is the amount of water that is required for complete hydration of cement? If this
question is googled, if you try to find it on the internet, there will be different numbers
that are cited by different researchers.

How is the pulse velocity, how is the ultrasonic pulse velocity, related to the quality of
concrete? A qualitative description yes, but any quantitative description will have
variations in discussion, and that is something which has matured concrete engineers,
one must try to decipher what is applicable in one case and so on, what is applicable in
the case, that we are especially interested.

(Refer Slide Time: 49:56)

Coming to the end knowledge the support of all the people, who have worked with me;
first of all professor Uomoto, who is formerly from the Department of Civil Engineering,
University of Tokyo; my colleagues in Kajima Corporation, Tokyo in Japan. Colleagues
in the Japan Society of Civil Engineers; My colleagues and friends in IIT Kanpur the
Bureau of Indian Standards and the Indian Construction Industry, then all the students at
IIT Kanpur, all these people have contributed in different ways, and I must say
immensely to my understanding of concrete, and I must say a thank you to them.

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(Refer Slide Time: 50:36)

Before, I close I would just like to share this with you, I have read this somewhere, and I
have probably paraphrased it, it is better to answer an exact question approximately than
answering in approximate question exactly; so it is my hope that I have raised enough
exact questions, and provided clues to approximate answers in this module.

Thank you.

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